The Remnants
by Mei Li Young
Summary: In a world where the dead eat people, it is survival of the fittest. Caring for others is not a luxury that the remnants of the human race have. For Edward, this rule of survival is tested when Bella enters his life. All canon pairings.
1. In the Beginning

**Chapter 1: In the Beginning**

"_Sergeant, containment's been breached. It's spreading too fast."_

"_I want this under control, soldier. I want this stopped! Take all necessary measures!"_

"_Oh my god, Sergeant. They're eating people!"_

"_Soldier! Please repeat!"_

"_Sarge, they're eating people. The dead are eating people!"_

* * *

**EDWARD**

A blaring sound hit me like a sharp knife through the brain, causing me to snap awake.

In annoyance, I sat up and tried to open my eyes, but I couldn't for some reason. It felt like my eyelids were stuck together.

"Mom?" I croaked.

Underneath the loud wailing of what sounded like a horn, there was a muffled sound coming from somewhere nearby, a kind of scratching noise.

"Mom?" I called again.

No one answered, but now the scratching sound was followed by a growl.

I jerked away from the sound, but couldn't move very far; something was holding me in place.

My breathing picked up as panic took hold of me.

Reaching up, I rubbed my hands against my eyes frantically, trying to get rid of whatever was keeping them glued shut.

Crusty flakes came off in my hands which looked like blood when I cracked my left eye open.

"What the fuck!" I gasped.

Extremely freaked out now, I looked around frantically.

At first, all I could see were shapes moving in front of my eyes, but my sense of hearing was crystal clear.

I jerked backwards again as the sound of growling and scratching got louder and it was coming from the moving shape in front of me.

Dragging the sleeve of my jacket across my eyes again, I rubbed the crust away and was finally able to see clearly, but what I saw couldn't have been real.

Some kind of thing shaped like a person was growling and thrashing in the front seat of my family's car.

With a whimper, I cowered away from the thing that was reaching out for me.

"No! Get away from me!" I cried out, jerking again in my seat.

Frantically looking around for a way to get out, I realized that I couldn't move because my seat belt was still fastened.

At that moment, the thing in the front seat lunged at me, its hand catching my jeans and tugging.

I screamed and thrashed harder before realizing that I'd forgotten to unfasten my seat belt.

With a sob of fear, I pushed down on the buckle and threw the door open, falling out of the car and slamming down on the pavement with a thump.

I stared around me frantically, scrambling to my knees looking for help.

There was no one around. No cars, no people, nothing. Things were abnormally still.

But suddenly a roar erupted above me, causing me to flatten myself to the ground, covering my head with my hands.

Looking up from my cowering position, I saw a helicopter fly overhead.

At the sight, everything that happened in the last twenty-four hours snapped back to me.

_Trucks full of soldiers and army helicopters had been passing by our small town all morning._

_Mom had been calling Dad all day. At first, I didn't think anything of it. Dad worked too much and it drove Mom crazy. He was the classic "absentee Dad." I was used to it, so it didn't bother me. But instead of getting angry like she usually did, Mom started pacing the floor getting more and more stressed. This time something was different and I picked up on Mom's stress and started to worry too. _

_Only a few hours later as Mom and I stood on our front porch, we heard the sound of "pop, pop, pop" in the distance. At first, I couldn't quite figure out what the noise was, but I saw the look of terror in Mom's eyes so I listened harder trying to figure out what the sound meant. When the popping noise got more frequent, I realized that the sound could be gunfire._

"_Edward, get Anna! Hurry, we need to get your father," she shouted as she flew back into the house._

_I bolted back inside and up the stairs. Bursting into my sister's room, I yanked her up into my arms from where she sat playing with her Polly Pocket doll house._

"_Eddie? What's going on?" she asked._

_I clutched her tight to me, fear overwhelming me. Anna was small for her five years which had always made me overprotective. But when I looked down and saw the terror in her eyes at my behavior, I shoved my own fear aside to comfort her. _

_Stroking her long auburn hair, I cradled her to my chest more gently now._

"_It's okay, babycakes," I said, holding her close. "We're gonna go get Dad."_

_Clutching my neck tightly, she burrowed her head in my neck._

"_Okay," she whimpered._

_Mom and Dad worked a lot, so I was more like a parent to her than they were. Even though I was only fourteen, I didn't have a grudge against them for it. I loved my sister more than life itself._

_I hurried down the stairs and ran out of the house to the car where Mom was already waiting._

_Opening the back seat, I placed my sister in her car seat, buckling her in. She was sniffling and tears were filling her eyes as she picked up on our fear. She grabbed a hold of the sleeve of my coat and wouldn't let go._

"_Okay, babycakes. I'll get in back with you," I said, soothingly and went around to the other side and climbed in. _

_Mom drove quickly out of the neighbourhood, kicking up dust in our wake. But we'd only just reached the outskirts of town when suddenly we were swarmed by people. Their bodies pressed up against the car as they fought to get inside. They were desperate, clawing and thumping against the car from all sides. A shrill cry escaped Mom as she pressed on the gas and tried to drive forward, but more and more people were pressing in against the car to the point that it was practically rocking on its wheels._

"_Go away! Get off the car! Please! We need to go!" Mom screamed at the crowd._

_But they only got louder with what sounded like moaning. It was almost deafening._

_Anna started to wail, clenching her eyes shut, so I leaned over and covered her ears with my hands._

_But I couldn't block out the sight and sound myself. One of the people's faces slammed against my window and with horror I saw that the man's cheek was ripped open down to the bone. As he pulled away, a smear of blood was left._

_I let out a scream as the mangled man, slammed its face against the window again his teeth snapping as if he were trying to bite me through the windshield._

_I looked around the car desperately, looking for an escape. That's when I saw that the others that were pressed against the car were equally mangled._

"_Mom! Drive!" I shouted._

_My sister Anna was shrieking now as the rocking of the car became more violent. _

"_Put your seatbelt on, Edward," Mom sobbed as she slammed down on the gas, but she couldn't see through the window with so many monsters on the hood._

_I'd barely fastened my seat belt in time before the car lurched forward and continued to accelerate with the creatures still holding on to the hood. Mom jerked the steering wheel to the left and then the right as she drove, trying to knock off the creatures that were groaning and pawing at the windshield. But while some of them were thrown off, the remainder blocked our view of the road, causing us to crash with a concussion that plunged me into unconsciousness._

Jumping to my feet, I scanned the area frantically, looking for Mom and Anna.

A choked sob escaped me when I couldn't see them.

A loud bang came from behind me, causing me to whip back towards the car.

The monster inside was slamming itself against the window of the driver's seat.

I jumped back, but was then pulled up short when I recognized the distinctive color of the creature's hair. It was the same as mine and was shared by only my mom and Anna. With a cry, I realized that the creature was shaped like my Mom.

"Mom…" I moaned, taking a step towards the car.

But I froze before I got too close. My mother was twisted in her seat, imprisoned by a seat belt she could not understand, open-mouthed and drooling as her jaws snapped at me. Her face was deformed, the color of ash, her eyes a faded reflection of what they once were.

With a scream of horror, I fell to the ground again as she slammed against the window, leaving blood.

Suddenly, it hit me like a punch to the stomach that Anna could still be in the car.

Leaping to my feet, I ran around to the other side of the car only to find that the door had been pulled nearly off its hinges. Ignoring my instinct to run, I inched closer because I had to find Anna.

Ignoring the thing thrashing in the front seat, I stepped even closer. But when I saw that the car seat was sprayed with blood, I gasped and staggered backwards.

"Oh please, no," I whimpered. "Anna? Anna?! Where are you?!" I shouted, spinning around, but this just seemed to get the thing that used to be my mom riled up.

With another sob, I turned away from the sight and ran in the direction of my neighbourhood. I'd always taught Anna to run home if something happened.

"Anna!" I continued to shout through panting breaths as I approached our street.

I was only about three houses away from mine when I saw movement out of the corner of my eye coming from an alleyway between two of my neighbours' homes. It could have just been the fluttering of clothing on a clothes line, but it could also have been my sister.

I turned towards it and saw my sister's auburn highlights reflected in a window.

Filled with relief, I called out to her.

"Anna," I shouted, running to catch up.

When I bolted around the side of the building, I didn't see anyone at first.

But then I heard it, the familiar sound of moaning. My breath caught in my throat when I realized that one of the monsters was behind me.

Spinning around, I raised my fists, prepared to fight. But my arms dropped to my sides useless at what I saw.

I tried to gasp for air, but the sight of my little sister slack-jawed, blood dripping from her chin destroyed me.

"Anna," I whimpered, beginning to cry to the point that my eyes were blurring.

"No… no…" I gasped, shaking my head. "This can't be happening… This can't be real…" I babbled. "Wake up! Wake up! WAKE UP!" I yelled slapping my face as hard as I could.

But when I opened my eyes, Anna was still stumbling towards me with her arms reaching out.

Her eyes were so empty. I couldn't see anything of my sister anymore.

My brain couldn't handle what it was seeing, so it turned inwards towards memories.

"_Edward, do you want to meet your little sister?" Mom asked, from her hospital bed. _

_I walked towards Mom, resentful that she was smiling at this little intruder. _

_Climbing onto her bed, I looked down at the bundle in her arms wrapped in a pink blanket._

_The little pink, wrinkled person reached up towards me. _

"_She wants to hold your hand, Edward," My mom said with a smile._

_Reaching out, I let her take my finger. I was amazed that something so little could have such a strong grip. _

_I looked up at my mother in amazement._

"_Can I hold her?" I asked in excitement._

My vision snapped back into reality when the moaning was practically in my ear. Anna was almost within arms' reach now, but I couldn't leave.

I fell to my knees, my eyes slamming shut, not able to deal with what was happening. I'd practically been raising Anna since I was nine. She was my life.

Everyone I loved was gone.

My chin fell to my chest and my hands covered my face, shaking. I didn't want to live in a world where I was all alone.

But when I felt her grab a hold of my sleeve and try to pull me towards her, my survival instinct kicked in. Shoving her away from me, I jumped to my feet.

She was so little that she fell backwards onto her back and was having trouble getting up, snarling and spitting in hunger. But when she finally got to her feet, she came at me again.

Again, I pushed her away from me and she fell.

Sobbing, I backed up a few steps, but I couldn't leave. I couldn't leave my baby sister.

"What do I do, sweetheart?" I whimpered and started crying harder when she growled at me.

Then, I heard it, rapid gunfire from down the street and coming closer.

I looked in the direction of the shooting and then back to my sister who was stumbling towards me again.

"Anna, babycakes, are you still in there?" I asked her, barely above a whisper. "Please, Anna. Show me you're still in there. I won't leave you. Just show me that you're still my sister," I begged, but there was nothing, no reaction beyond the hunger in her eyes.

So with one last look, I bolted to my feet and ran back out of the alley and away from the machine gun fire.

* * *

The first night that I hid in our half-finished basement apartment, the cries of people in the street echoed against the cement walls. The crunch of them running past on the gravel, their panting as they ran, caused me to cower in fear. Then, my fear turned to terror as the moans of the dead soon followed.

I was too afraid to look out the small basement window. After my sister, I was scared that the monsters shambling gaits as they dragged themselves against the wall of my house belonged to someone I knew, like Mrs. Jennings from next door or even more horrifying my best friend Dimitri who only lived three houses down.

So I huddled amongst a nest of blankets that I'd dragged downstairs from my room, trying to sleep. For close to three weeks, I stayed in the basement. A week ago, the power stopped working. Then there was absolute silence. No hum of electricity or sound of cars. Only my breathing kept me company. That and my books.

The only light that I had was from the small rectangular window that let in a shaft of sunlight every day that wasn't overcast. I sat in that small amount of light and read the books that I found in a box under the stairs. I'd always liked reading, but usually I read horror novels. Now that horror was my reality, I found that Mom's books helped me escape. I struggled with Wuthering Heights, but once I got over the old-fashioned vocabulary, the storyline helped me escape for a while.

I was almost able to ignore the world around me until my food ran out. I'd finished off the last of my peanut butter and jam sandwiches two days ago and I only had a few bottles of water left. It was all that I'd eaten for three weeks.

Now I had to leave or starve. My parents weren't rich. We barely had enough food most days and the night before last I heard people upstairs. They clomped across the floor in a steady pace, calming my fear that the dead had finally come for me. But just as I'd decided to go upstairs to join the other survivors I heard the sound of glass breaking and things getting knocked over as they ramsacked my house in search of food I guessed. My last hope of staying disappearing as the last of my food was taken.

That night I cried for the first time since Anna. I was truly alone and there was no one coming to help me. I had the small sliver of hope that my Dad would come looking for me, but after three weeks I knew that it was hopeless.

I decided to leave the next morning.

* * *

I hadn't stopped running for days or maybe it was weeks. It was hard to keep running, to constantly be on alert for the dead, to worry about where to sleep even if it was only for five minutes, to have to look for even scraps of food and water every single day.

I saw other people, but I was too afraid to approach them. I didn't know what was going on, but what I did know was that it was every man for himself, made apparent when a few of the other survivors raised a gun at me as I'd approached them.

For a while, I was able to fool myself into thinking that things weren't as bad as they seemed. I was even after a time able to convince myself that I'd only dreamed about the death of my mother and my sister. I'd told myself that they were just visiting my aunt a few towns over and all I had to do was get to them. But every day I had to convince myself all over again because the nightmares of my sister covered in blood and biting into my flesh caused me to scream in the night.

The moment that broke through my denial for good was when on the outskirts of another small town, I saw two men, huddled over a third, pulling bits of his entrails out and eating them. It was one of the most horrifying sights that I'd ever seen and was the moment that I realized that the world as I'd known was gone forever.

Those were the first dead that chased me. When they'd heard or smelled me, the two of them stood up from their meal and staggered towards me. I ran, but they seemed to be tracking my scent. Not that much later, the two were joined by a third and then five more, chasing me through the woods and then into the town.

I'd finally been able to ditch them when I snuck into an abandoned store. The store had been quiet and dark, musty from lack of use over the last several months. With a sigh of relief, I leaned against the wall, attempting to catch my breath. But suddenly, I was shoved to the side as something tumbled against me. Jumping away, I saw the large shape of what used to be a man. One of its arms was missing and strips of flesh were hanging from its body, but it was still mobile and strong. It lunged at me again, this time, almost able to grab me. I backed away from it, wild with panic as I was backed into a corner. I'd never been this close to one before. It lumbered towards me again, attempting to grab me with its outstretched arms, but I dodged its grip. However, I was still unable to get past it. I pressed myself against the wall and looked desperately for a way to escape.

It was then that I saw the bowie knife in one of its belt loops. I had one of my own at home that I used to clean fish while camping with my father.

In order to survive, I had to get the knife.

The next time the creature lunged at me, I grabbed for the knife. I was able to yank it out of the belt loop, but then I fumbled, causing it to drop to the ground.

I reached down for it, while desperately trying to brace my forearm against the creature's chest, gasping in panic. But it was too strong. The creature fell on top of me, blood laced drool dripping from his mouth and onto my face and hair. Whimpering in fear, I tried to shove the creature off of me, but couldn't because gravity had added to its weight.

The creature kept lunging towards me, snapping at my face with blood flecked teeth, getting closer and closer with each snap.

In mad desperation for survival, I shoved it with all of my might, rolling after it until I was on my knees. During our struggle, the creature had grabbed a hold of my left arm and was using it to pull me towards it.

With a cry of fear, I began stabbing the creature over and over again, in the stomach, chest, even the neck but it just kept fighting me. Sobbing, I watched the flesh rip from the creature's bones as my stabbing reached the creature's face. I slammed the blade into its upturned chin, which suddenly caused it to go limp.

Stumbling away from the corpse, I threw up what little I had in my stomach. I looked back at what I'd done and dry heaved again. The dead man was a mangled ruin.

Staggering to the opposite side of the store, I fell in a heap and sobbed until I fell into unconsciousness.

When I'd awoken, I wandered around the store looking for food, but it had been picked over by others, not all of whom had been as lucky as me. I saw the remains of what had been a human in a pile in a corner of the store. As I approached the corpse, I saw something lying on top of it. As I got closer, I saw it was a crossbow. Gingerly, I reached out and grabbed it from the mess that had been a human. I didn't have a clue how to shoot a crossbow, but if I was going to survive, I couldn't only fight hand to hand. I barely survived against one, what chance would I have against a swarm of them like the ones that I'd seen on the street. With disgust I grabbed the quiver with five arrows and crept towards one of the windows to see if the street was empty.

Seeing that the coast was clear, I slipped out of the store and down the street.

Even without food, I ventured back into the countryside. There seemed to be less dead on the outskirts of this town, maybe because there were fewer houses or because there were still people to eat in town so they hadn't had to venture any further yet.

Exhausted from my escape from the city, I climbed one of the large redwood trees that I'd seen from the dirt road. I loved climbing trees and red wood trees were the best because of their size. Now I used the interwoven branches and a rope that I'd grabbed from the store to secure myself to the tree by tying it around my waist. I needed to sleep and this was the only place I could find.

I let out a sigh of exhaustion. The night was quiet, nothing but the song of tree frogs and the droning of bull frogs from the nearby brook. The sky was clear, the stars bright in the sky. At any other time in my life, I would have loved it. I loved camping and fishing. I spent most of my summer sleeping under the stars rather than in my own bed. I took after my father in that way. It was the only time that we ever spent together. We'd just started bringing Anna with us on our summer excursions. She wasn't quite sold on it, just like Mom.

In the middle of these memories, I fell asleep.

Sunlight woke me.

I looked around disoriented as I tried to shake off the dream that had put me in my bedroom.

"Mom," I mumbled in a daze. But then I heard it and the sound brought me back to reality. From below I heard the groans as the dead circled my tree.

Looking down, I saw that there were three of them.

_What am I going to do now?_ I thought desperately.

I couldn't wait them out. The dead never got tired and I knew that they would be able to smell me. I could smell myself, having not had the chance to bathe in weeks.

I knew that the only way out of this was to kill them.

Reaching behind me, I grabbed the crossbow and quiver.

I'd never shot a gun or used a bow before and it took me forever just to figure out how to notch an arrow.

I tried to push away the anxiety. I had seven arrows which gave me a few chances to kill the three below. But I'd never been good at pool or darts or anything requiring precise hand-eye coordination.

Looking below me again, I realized that if I couldn't do it, I was going to die.

Hanging my legs over the largest branch in order to get the right angle, I took aim at the one closest to me. Using the sight, I took my time centering the target on the creature's forehead.

_Breathe_.

Letting out a slow breath, I pressed my finger on the trigger.

With a _thunk_, the dead thing was thrown off balance as the arrow struck its shoulder.

Six more arrows to go. Three dead things.

Again I shot, but this time my aim was totally off.

Trying to shove away the feeling of panic, I took a deep steadying breath and cleared my mind of everything. I tried to imagine that this was just a point and shoot video game that I played with my best friend Demetri. Looking at the thing shaped like a man that I'd been shooting at, I realized that I could easily imagine that this was a video game because the creatures really didn't look real, more like scary costumes.

This time when I released, the creature dropped to the ground as the arrow found its way into its skull.

The second one was easier as my conscious mind separated from the reality of what was happening around me.

_This is just a video game_, I told myself.

* * *

I no longer needed to run at each small sound in the forest. I wasn't a scared rabbit anymore. I was a hunter, a killer. I'd learned so much from video games that my mother told me were rotting my brain. I laughed under my breath. She should see me now.

But even with my ability to kill the dead things, hunger gnawed incessantly at my stomach. If I turned my head too quickly, dizziness would take over and I frequently fell.

I never stopped walking. I found a brook and knew that eventually the brook would lead to a river, lake, something. So, I continued to follow it. Along the way, I searched for food, but beyond a few summer berries I found nothing. I wasn't a good enough shot yet, to kill anything as small as a bird or squirrel.

Finally, I was relieved to hear the sound of rushing water ahead of me. Where there was rushing water, there would be fish. When I broke from the trees, I stumbled and fell to my knees as the undergrowth released me.

I froze on my hands and knees staring at myself in the rippling reflection of the river. I didn't recognize who was looking back at me. My cheeks had hollowed out as I'd grown thinner and my eyes appeared sunken above my cheekbones. The only things about me that were familiar were my bronze hair and green eyes. Their colour were the only things alive about me anymore.

I shook myself out of these thoughts as I began to look at myself critically. My hair was too long, getting in my eyes and obscuring my vision from any potential monsters. My clothes were hanging off of me, causing me to trip frequently. Along with food, I had to take care of these two things because they would kill me just as much as starvation.

Sitting up, I looked out across the wide river and saw the ripples of fish swimming through the current.

_Now all I need is fishing gear_, I thought with a groan.

Later in the day, I came across several farm houses but none of them had anything useful because they'd been picked clean.

However, as night approached I saw one in the distance with burnished light shining from its windows.

Creeping slowly up to the house, I heard the murmur of voices which caused me to freeze. I hadn't been around people for weeks and what I'd seen of the people pillaging houses didn't give me any reason to want to.

So I sidled up to the house slowly and slid across the wall until I was able to peek through the window.

There was a woman in mismatched clothes tucking two small children into makeshift beds on the floor.

Once they were settled, she stood up and walked to an armchair that contained a man who was fast asleep.

After gently kissing the man's forehead, she stood up and stretched. She was just as gaunt and tired looking as I was. They must not have been having much luck with finding food too.

For a brief moment, I thought about knocking on the door. But the thought was gone before it really even had time to settle in my brain. _People die. It was every man for himself._

Without a backward glance, I snuck into their garage and took most of the canned goods and the fishing gear that was tucked into the back of the room. If they were stupid enough to leave it out in the open, then they didn't deserve it anyway.

Slipping out of the garage, I practically laughed out loud in relief at the gold mine that I'd found.

* * *

Continuing along the river, I found a cabin that was tucked into a patch of fir and redwood trees.

It was pitch black which made me think that no one lived there any more.

As quiet as possible, I broke a window and reached in to unlatch it so I could raise it.

Cautiously, I slipped inside, watching carefully for any movement in the dark.

Finally, when I sensed no movement, I clicked on the flashlight that I'd stolen from the farm house.

Its single beam of light cast shadows on the walls that I watched warily because each one could contain one of the dead.

Room to room I searched the house, not finding anything until I found a bedroom upstairs. As the door creaked open, I prepared myself for an attack.

But what I saw caused me to sigh in relief. On the bed were four bodies. Two larger ones and two smaller. _A family_… I mused.

With a shrug, I turned away and closed the door firmly behind me.

Finally, I had a place to call my own.

**A:N/ So what do you think about my story? It's going to be quite different from A Brave New World, but I hope that you'll like it just as much. Drop me a line and let me know what you think.**


	2. The Survivors Club

**CHAPTER 2: THE SURVIVORS CLUB**

**EDWARD**

I was out of all my canned goods. I'd finished them off about four weeks ago. And now I wasn't getting enough nutrition. I caught plenty of fish, but I could tell that I wasn't getting everything I needed because I was always tired. In my little house, surrounded by trees, I was able to get a few more hours of sleep each night than I'd been able to since the dead had risen, but I still barely had enough energy to go to the water's edge to catch fish.

I was also craving vegetables. It was funny. Only a few months ago, I refused to eat them. Now, I couldn't stop thinking about them—carrots, broccoli, and cucumber. The thought of them made my mouth water.

So, I had to leave my sanctuary and try to find other food to supplement all of the fish that I'd been eating.

At first, I'd scavenged the houses nearby again, but they were all empty. Even the house with the family was now empty. Either they left because they'd run out of food or they were overrun. So, I had no choice but to go back into town.

At first, I'd ransacked abandoned cars that I'd found on the highway, but they were pretty picked over, so the only choice was to venture further into the more populated areas.

However, then, the worst thing happened to me. I caught a cold. I thought about how in Biology Mrs. Richards told us that in order to catch a cold or flu you had to be exposed to the viruses_. _

_Where in the hell was I exposed a virus? I thought I was the only one left to contaminate anything,_ I thought bitterly.

Now, I was in a town full of the dead. Every sneeze, every cough was a siren, calling the dead to me.

I ran down an alleyway, allowing my nose to run because I couldn't sniff or blow it without attracting attention. In front of me, there was a row of abandoned store fronts and shops stretched out before me, but each had broken windows or kicked in doors as people had looted everything they could.

Moving quickly, I stayed tight to the wall under a row of awnings, past stained doors and rust flecked windows. Dusk was closing in and shadows were lengthening, burying me in shade. As I moved, I was conscious of the heavy breathing I was doing with the weight of my backpack and my snot filled nose.

The sense of being surrounded by the dead was frightening. I couldn't see any of them, but I could hear them and I knew that they were right around the corner. While I was pretty confident in my killing ability, I was no match for a horde of them even if I hadn't been sick.

Finally, I saw a store that wasn't broke into. I would have loved for it to be a grocery store, but it was a paint shop. I crept up to the door and was shocked when I found it unlocked. That could have been a bad sign, but I had no choice but to go inside.

Hauling out my bowie knife, I quietly slipped into the building. Very slowly, I reached back to the door and locked the deadbolt. For better or for worse, I was here for the night because I was on the verge of collapse. I could feel my fever spiking again and I didn't have any Tylenol left. I carefully scanned the inside of the store for any monsters, praying that there wouldn't be any because I didn't think I'd be able to fight in this condition. Thankfully, the shop was empty.

I collapsed behind one of the stacks of paint, but scooted forward so that I could still peak around the side in order to see the front of the store.

From this point, I was able to watch the dead stumbling down the street, passing by the shop, oblivious to my whereabouts, their prey.

The dead were from every walk of life- old and young, men and women, rich and poor, each and every face similar in their various stages of rot and bloated grey skin.

Their stench seeped into the shop even though the windows and doors were securely shut. The vibration of their moans sent chills through me that was even more intense due to my fever.

When the horde finally passed, I let out a sigh of relief. But no sooner had it escaped my lips then a great wracking cough took a hold of me.

Doubled over, I tried to cover it with my sleeve to muffle the sound, terrified that the dead would hear me.

When it finally passed, I sat frozen…. waiting.

For a few moments, I thought that I'd actually escaped notice. Then, the unmistakable sound of moaning got louder, accompanied by thumps and scrapes as the dead stumbled along the wall of the shop and then began to slap against the windows and door.

Staggering to my feet, I ran for the back of the store, praying for a back exit.

I passed by an office and then was into the back room where the paint was stored. Scanning the darkened space, I saw with relief an exit sign across the room.

As I ran towards it, I heard the sound of breaking glass coming from the front of the store.

Praying that there were no dead on the other side of the door, I slammed through it and was then in an alley.

Looking left and right, I searched for the best direction. One led back onto the street where the dead could be heard moaning, so I had no choice but to turn right and pray that I didn't run into too many.

Dashing out of the alleyway, I looked for another secure building, but there was nothing. I was gasping for breath by this time, my cold strangling me. It was enough that I couldn't contain the coughs that tore at my throat.

In desperation, I ran towards the nearest car and threw open the door and climbed in, slamming it behind me. Squeezing down to the floor so that I was hidden, I tried to calm my breathing. But I could hear them coming and the panic was only making my breathing worse.

So, I closed my eyes and tried to pretend that I was somewhere else.

I heard the thumping and snarling of the dead as they surrounded my vehicle, but I kept my eyes tightly closed. Soon I was going to die, but I didn't want to see it coming.

A loud scraping and creaking erupted in the air as the door was yanked open and one of them grabbed my leg, dragging me out of the car.

"Get up, boy!" someone growled over me.

My eyes flew open in shock.

An older looking man stood over me, holding a shot gun in one hand. He was probably in his 60s with deeply tanned and lined skin and graying brown hair slicked back in a ponytail.

When I didn't move, he snarled at me.

"What's wrong with you?! Get up! Or we're leaving you!"

I heard the unmistakable sound of fighting and then gunfire behind the man which caused me to snap out of my daze and jump to my feet.

Three other men with him were gunning down the horde as they surged towards us, but it was clear that they were not going to be able to fight them off.

"Boys! There's too many. Let's head back to the trucks. We'll take this one with us!" he shouted.

As one, the three turned towards us and started to head in our direction. Each of them were burly outdoor types who had the hardened look of men that had had tough lives. They were exactly the kind of people that would survive an apocalypse.

But one of the men had misjudged how close the monsters were to him. A bloated corpse of a woman in her twenties jerkily shuffled towards him and bit into his bicep. With a cry of alarm, the man yanked his arm away from her, blood spraying everywhere. Spinning towards the herd, he slammed his gun down onto her head, cracking it open. But the smell of his blood on the air seemed to bring on a frenzy amongst the dead, causing them to surge towards him, taking him to the ground.

"Help! Garrett! Please! Hellllllppppp!" he screamed but it was muffled by the writhing bodies on top of him.

"Let's head out boys. He's done for." The old man said and without looking back walked away in the opposite direction.

I stared in shock at their retreating forms before running after them.

The three men strode down the street with the confidence. They would wait until the dead were close enough to cause problems and either hack them down with machetes or shoot them squarely in the head.

We walked quite a distance out of the town centre and into a more residential area where surprisingly they headed towards a small park.

There, I saw a small group of trucks and vans set up in a circle with people standing guard with rifles across their chest. In the center, I saw people milling around including a few women and children.

"Welcome to the Survivors Club," one of the men said to me with a harsh laugh before walking past the guards and into the circle.

I cautiously followed him, trying to look everywhere at once.

I'd learned not to trust groups because the groups that I saw in towns and in the countryside survived by being cutthroat. I knew this world was survival of the fittest and I had no qualms about stealing to survive, but I'd been horrified when I'd even seen one group kill another group of survivors to get their food.

People were looking at me just as suspiciously, including the women who corralled their children away from me.

"Hey boy! Boy! Get over here!"

I scanned the small group looking for the owner of the voice and saw the older man who had rescued me, beckoning me towards a small campfire.

An older woman and a younger one stood next to the fire cooking something in a pot which caused my mouth to water.

"What are you looking at boy?! I told you to get over here," the man growled.

I stumbled towards him and tried to focus on him instead of the savoury smell of food coming from the pot.

As I approached them, I scrutinized him. He was a tall, lanky man with piercing blue eyes and long sandy hair he kept back with a leather thong. He didn't seem like the friendly type, which caused me to be even more suspicious about why he rescued me.

"What's your name boy?" he demanded, once I was standing right in front of him.

He was staring me down with his mouth set in a grim line while he waited for me to answer.

I didn't answer because I had no reason to trust him.

"Not talking, eh?" he snarled at me, but I just stared at him.

"My name is Garrett and this is my wife Kate and my daughter Tanya," he said motioning towards the older and younger women.

"Now, speak. What's your name?" he said.

"Edward…" I muttered.

"Okay, Edward. Where are your people?" he asked, staring at me intently.

I felt myself tense up in suspicion. He was probably wondering if I got separated from a larger group that may have supplies.

"I'm alone," I grunted at him, my eyes straying back to the food.

"Don't lie to me boy. You're just a kid. You can't be more than sixteen. No kid could have survived on their own for the past five months," he said with a snarl.

"Well, I don't know what to tell you sir," I snapped at him. "I'm almost fifteen and I _have_ been alone and I've survived just fine."

The man stared at me a little longer and then let out a bark of a laugh.

"Well, looks like you might have a bit of fight in you. That's good…. That's good…" he said with a grin that wasn't altogether friendly.

"Sit down, boy. We've got enough to share tonight, but you'll have to start pulling your own weight starting tomorrow," he said, reaching out to take a bowl from his wife.

I sat down, staring at the bowl as it was passed to him.

"Excuse me," a quiet voice said next to me.

I tensed and snapped my head to the side to see where the voice came from.

Tanya, the daughter, had a bowl in her hands outstretched towards me.

With a grunt, I grabbed the bowl from her and without even looking at it, started shoveling it in.

With a gasp of pain, I spit out the food in my mouth at the scalding temperature.

The girl stared at me in shock and then burst out laughing.

"Hungry, much?" she said with a smirk.

"Fuck off, bitch! Not everyone has a family to feed them," I snarled at her, causing her to take a step back from me.

Suddenly, my head was wrenched back by my hair and I was staring into the furious eyes of Garrett.

"You will speak to my family with respect or I'll put a bullet between your eyes, boy," he hissed between his teeth.

Gulping loudly, I nodded.

Releasing my hair with a shake, Garrett stomped away from me and thumped himself down on an overturned log.

"Now, eat and I don't want to see a drop spilled. We don't waste food here."

With that, he went back to eating and for the rest of the meal I was ignored.

I couldn't figure out what was going on. _Why did they bring me back?_

I felt eyes on me as I ate. The other people in camp were staring at me suspiciously, so it was clear that they didn't often bring in strangers.

I began to scrutinize the man's family that had taken me in.

The woman looked to be in her early fifties, with long hair, pale blond, and straight as corn silk. She didn't look particularly motherly, but I could definitely see that she doted on her husband. As he leaned towards her talking quietly, she stared up at him with adoration.

The daughter sat a few feet away from them staring openly at me with a small smile on her face, like she had a secret.

Tanya was pretty in a girly-girl way. She had long, curly, strawberry blonde hair pulled up in a high pony tail and the same blue eyes as her father. But the thing that was the most shocking about her was how clean she was. Everyone around us was covered in grime and filth, but even her clothes looked washed. She looked exactly like one of the popular kids at my school before the world fell apart. Empty headed girls who thought more about clothes and make-up than anything else.

"Hey, Edward?" she asked, snapping me out of my thoughts.

I flushed red, realizing that I'd been staring at her.

I looked into her eyes and saw a hint of smugness like she thought that I'd been staring at her because I thought she was hot.

So instead of saying anything, I just glared at her and slurped the last of the stew out of my bowl.

Unfazed, she continued.

"Do you want to get cleaned up? There's a well nearby and some of the women brought a bunch of water back to camp to wash. I can even find some clean clothes for you. You're probably about the same size as James."

Getting cleaned up was the last thing on my mind.

It was at that moment that I began coughing.

As soon as the coughing fit had died down, the air was thick with tense silence.

"Are you sick, boy?" Garrett asked me with a grim look on his face.

"I've got a cold. I caught it a few days ago," I said, feeling suddenly nervous. "I'm getting better though."

Garrett stared at me for a few moments.

"You better be…" I thought I heard him mutter under his breath before standing up.

"Go get washed up, boy. I can smell you from here. Then, it's to bed for everyone not on watch this shift," he said loud enough for the whole camp to hear him.

I was annoyed at being ordered around by this man, but not enough to fight back. It was the first time that I'd felt full in months and I couldn't just give that up because of his bedside manner. I wanted to milk it for all it was worth for a few days. Then, I would sneak away taking some of their food with me. They seemed to have plenty of it.

So, I got up and followed Tanya towards one of the large RVs.

* * *

I had to admit that it felt good to be clean again. Clean hair, clean skin, even clean teeth along with a full stomach made me feel like a person instead of the animal that I'd become in the last month or maybe even months. Every day had begun to bleed together as I ran for my life.

I was relaxed enough that I took my time walking back to Garrett's campsite. Looking around it seemed like there were a lot of families, but also clusters of men with heavy gun power. Some of them were older, but there were also one or two that were my age. They glared at me with suspicion when they sensed me staring at them.

A guy with blond hair that fell just above his collar openly glared at me as I walked by. He was taller than me and lean. He didn't look that older than me, but if I'd met him at school I probably would have steered clear of him. He just exuded this air of danger. When he noticed that my eyes had focused on him, his eyes blazed and his stance exuded the barely contained violence of a killer.

I clutched my crossbow to my chest, deciding then and there if he made a move on me I would shoot him.

"That's Jasper," a voice said next to me. "I'd steer clear of him."

I spun around, my finger landing on the trigger of my crossbow.

With a grunt of frustration, I saw that it was Tanya.

"Edward? Do you want me to give you a haircut? I don't know who did it last, but it looks like someone just started hacking away at it."

I sighed in frustration as I looked at her.

She was looking at me flirtatiously and it just made me angry. We were not in high school anymore. That kind of life was over.

"Tanya. I'm only going to say this once. Stay the fuck away from me. I'm not interested."

Instead of being turned off though, she walked past me with a smirk, dragging her fingers across my shoulders as she left.

"We'll see…" she said in a sing-song voice.

* * *

That night, I refused to sleep in any of the vehicles so instead I settled down next to one of the camp fires. I felt more at ease out in the open because if any of the people tried anything I had room to escape.

Despite my distrust of the people around me, I fell into a deep sleep. I didn't wake up until dawn and by that time most of the camp was up and about.

I sat up and looked around. Today, I was going to look for where they stashed the food, so that once I was rested I could steal some and slip away before anyone noticed me.

So after going to the communal fire for some stew, I casually walked around the camp, surreptitiously looking for their food cache. However, no sooner had I started looking then I felt someone watching me. Pausing, I scanned the camp. At first, I didn't see anyone, but just at the edge of the camp site, leaning against a tree trunk was the guy named Jasper. It was obvious that he was watching me.

I glared at him and then raised my eyebrow in a question. _What do you want?_

Jasper just smirked at me.

Knowing that he was probably going to continue watching me, I gave up on my search and went to where Garrett was giving out orders.

"Quil, you and Brady go into Oakville and check out the hospital. We're almost out of antiseptic and bandages," Garrett ordered two older men, one of whom carried an axe and the other a shotgun.

"James and Jasper, take the new kid on a hunt. Let's see if he can keep up," Garrett said, barely looking at me.

"Boy, this is your audition. If you can't prove your worth on this hunt, you'll be out on your ass tomorrow," he stated calmly as he stared me down.

I looked over towards where Jasper was standing with another guy around the same age. Both of them were smiling at me, but it didn't reach their eyes.


	3. Kicking the Hornet's Nest

**EDWARD**

It was an overcast day with a fine mist cloaking the forest. The sun broke sporadically through the clouds, like a child peeking through their fingers in a game of hide and seek, but those moments were few and far between.

The air was humid, making it a little hard to breathe. This layer of humidity led to mosquitoes. The air was full of them, their high pitched buzzing a constant annoyance. It was futile to try to swat them away because there were a million more to take their place.

Jasper, James and I walked for nearly half a day before finding any kind of game. Even though most of the dead remained close to town, some were beginning to expand their hunting range looking for more prey. When the dead couldn't find humans, any warm-blooded animal would do to feed their unquenchable appetite.

James and Jasper set a brisk pace, every sense on alert as they passed through the trees. I tried to match their ability to slip just as silently through the forest, but I was keenly aware of every snap of twig or crunch of dirt under my feet. The longer we walked, the more overgrown the area became, making it more and more difficult to walk.

For the most part, they ignored me, beyond a few snickers when I stumbled over a tree root.

At a certain point, Jasper slowed and then stopped, motioning for us to be quiet. James and I slowly crept forward to join him next to a large oak.

Sweat was streaming down my face, as I tried as quietly as possible to load a bolt in my crossbow. Then, I peeked around the oak and saw that there was a partridge burrowing under leaves, probably protecting her eggs. I'd seen plenty in the woods behind my house.

I thought that Jasper or James would take the shot, but Jasper motioned me forward. As I passed, James hissed in my ear, "It's time to prove your worth, boy."

I'd never hunted animals before. The dead were easier targets than animals because they were slow and so focused on eating me that they never tried to run away from my shots.

I inhaled nervously, pretty sure that I wouldn't be able to make the shot. I'd assumed that I'd have to shoot a deer or some other large animal, not something as small as a bird.  
I used my scope to take aim and took a deep breath, letting it go slowly. As I exhaled, I pulled the trigger, praying that it would hit its mark.

But it didn't.

The bolt struck the ground about three feet to the right of the bird, causing it to launch itself into the air in a flurry of feathers.

Jasper tsked in disdain and James snorted.

"Well, well, well, Garrett's going to be interested to know that his new recruit is useless," James said with a smirk.

I glared at him. I didn't care what they really thought, but I was on edge around James. There was a gleam in his eyes that made me think that he wasn't quite sane.

We continued to hunt, but even though we found signs that bigger game like rabbits and deer had been in the area, we didn't find any.

"Shit, we can't go back with nothing. Garrett will tear us all new ones," Jasper muttered, dragging his hand across his face.

I vaguely knew the area because my family used to get our fruit and vegetables from the farmers in the area. My parents had been on an organic kick, so they'd refused to buy any produce from groceries stores and instead went directly to the farmers.

So, I turned onto a dirt road that we'd come upon and headed towards where I knew we'd find crops.

"Boy! Where are you going? You runnin away? Afraid Garrett will kill you for your being a waste of space?" James called from behind me.

I didn't understand what his problem was, but it was clear that he was baiting me and I wasn't going to give him the satisfaction.

We reached the Richardson farm after about ten minutes.

"We can get stuff here," I grunted.

I passed by the farm house and headed towards the barn where I knew they kept crates for their produce.

I grabbed one and strode into the closest field.

It was amazing how quickly tilled earth and weeded rows had been taken over by invading plants.

At first I didn't think that I would find anything. Then, I saw the familiar plants.

I shoved the crate into Jasper's arms and began to fill it with potatoes. The crate was soon full so I stood up, wiping my hands on my jeans.

I looked at Jasper, expecting some sort of reaction, but he remained silent with an unreadable expression on his face.

We also found carrots and onions as well as a few pumpkins, but we wouldn't be able to carry it all back with us. So, we filled our backpacks with a selection of each and left the field planning to come back with others later.

It was clear that James wasn't happy with my find. I didn't know what his problem was. For a person that I'd just met, he seemed to have an extreme hatred for me.

As we walked through a field, James slashed with his knife at the grass which was high enough to reach his chest.

After walking ahead of us for a while, he suddenly slowed down and kept pace with me.

"Where you from, boy?" James asked.

I grunted out a response, "nowhere… everywhere… none of your fucking business…"

"Uh, huh," he said, nodding as if he didn't expect any other response.

"You survived on your own, huh? No family?" James continued, not seeming to be affected by my lack of response.

I didn't respond.

"There's no fuckin way you survived on your own if you can't even kill a partridge. Do you have a mummy or daddy waiting for you somewhere to come home so they can give you a bottle?" he sneered. "Come on. Tell me where they are and we'll bring them to our camp. One big happy family."

I glared at him with hatred, barely able to contain my anger.

"Oh, I see. Your family turned, didn't they? You're _all_ alone because your mommy and daddy wanted to eat your brain, so you had to run away," he said with a smirk.

I swung towards him and shoved him hard enough to knock him into the tall grass.

Instead of being angry, James climbed to his feet and just smirked at me.

"I really touched a nerve. I bet you lost someone else too. A brother, maybe a sister…"

At the word sister, Anna flashed in my mind. Not the Anna I loved, but the one that wanted nothing more than my blood.

"Shut the fuck up!" I snarled.

"Ah, a sister. Did you lose a sissy, Edward? Ah, you poor boy. Do you need a tissue?" he taunted.

In a blind rage, I swung a fist at him and connected with his face.

James head snapped back, but surprisingly he was able to keep on his feet.

I vaguely heard someone talking to my left, but I was beyond listening.

I had to hit him again. I'd been trying to forget about what happened to my sister, preferring to remember her as my beautiful little girl, but he'd brought it all back to me.

There was an ecstasy that came with rage. Letting go of my control was like becoming separated from my body and becoming nothing but a fire that burned everything else away.

But before I was able to let out all my pent up anger, Jasper wrapped his arms around me in restraint. Desperate to hurt James, I snapped my elbow back and slammed it into Jasper's stomach, causing him to let go and double over.

Then, I threw myself onto James again and began to pummel any part that I could reach.

But before I was able to cause any permanent damage, I felt something cold press against my temple.

"Enough."

I froze, not just because of the cold metal that dug into my skin, but also because of the tone of Jasper's voice as he pressed the muzzle of the gun against my temple.

James rolled to his feet and laughed.

"Ah, Jasper. I'm only having a little fun with the new kid. The new boy needs to take his lickings just like we all did when Garrett brought us into the fold," James said, wiping blood away from his split lip. "What's the use of him if he can't even hunt?"

Jasper didn't respond. He just stared hard at James, long enough that James broke eye contact and strode away.

"I'll give you one last chance, kid. If you can't make the next kill, I'll tell Garrett and you'll be out on your ass," Jasper stated in a matter-of-fact voice to me.

Then, he turned away and continued to walk through the grass.

We walked for quite a distance before we reached another outcropping of trees in the distance.

Jasper stopped walking and turned towards me.

"We should be able to find some game in there. This is your-" he began, but suddenly the grass parted on Jasper's left, just out of his field of vision. A dead man dressed in overalls with long scraggly hair climbed surprisingly quickly to its feet, stumbling forward and grabbing Jasper by the shoulder and arm before he even noticed his approach.

With a cry, Jasper reached for his gun but was yanked to the side by the creature before he could get a hold of it.

Without thinking, I grabbed the knife I kept hidden in one of my leather boots and strode forward. I grabbed the thing around the neck and yanked its head back by the hair. Shoving my blade hard into its upturned chin, I felt it go limp.

I dropped it to the ground and met Jasper's eyes.

But before either of us could say anything, I saw the grass parting a few feet away from James who was busy watching us.

"Over there," I hissed and spun around James to meet the dead before it could get to its feet.

With my knife gripped in my hand, I brushed the grass apart and attacked the dead woman who was dragging herself through the grass using only her arms because her legs were missing.

Without any difficulty, I killed her.

Turning back to Jasper and James, I saw that each one of them were fighting hand-to-hand with other dead. And more were approaching through the grass.

I pushed forward, trying to reach the dead before they could get their hands on Jasper and James.

As one lunged for me, I ducked under its outstretched arms and pushed it to the ground using both hands to stab the thing in the head with all my might.

This was what I was good at. I was a killer of dead things. I wasn't a hunter, I was a killer.

Once the thing under me stopped moving, I lunged for another that had almost reached Jasper.

Leaping onto its back, I knocked it to the ground and shoved my knife into the back of its neck, severing its spinal cord.

Climbing to my feet, I saw that Jasper and James were just finishing off their kills.

I expected at least some acknowledgement for saving their lives, but Jasper said nothing while James glared at me and turned away.

With a laugh, James strode ahead of us both, heading towards the trees.

I shook my head in confusion. It seemed like James wasn't even phased by our close call. He was almost happy as he pushed through the tall grass that could hide any number of the dead. Jasper, on the other hand, seemed even more distant and quiet.

But after a few minutes of walking, Jasper broke the silence.

"Be careful around James. He sees you as competition. It's happened before and he's always come out on top," Jasper said, from where he'd slowed down and begun to walk by my side.

"What happened to his last competition?" I asked.

"He killed him," Jasper said, matter-of-factly.

I froze.

"It's survival of the fittest in this new world. Everything is competition—food, things, women," he continued. "Garrett is god in our new little group. But if you can't protect yourself against James, Garrett won't help you. Neither will anyone else."

Without another word, he walked away from me and into the woods.

* * *

When we arrived back at camp, I hung back. Even though we'd found other birds, I was still not able to hit anything. And after my conversation with Jasper, I was on edge. Garrett could just as well kill me as throw me out of their group.

So when James and Jasper approached Garrett with our backpacks and nothing else, I watched them intensely.

Jasper leaned towards Garrett and talked to him in a low voice. James joined in and while he did it, he occasionally looked at me with a smirk.

Jasper opened our backpacks and poured out all of the crops that we'd picked at Richardson's farm. Garrett looked down at the vegetables on the ground and then over at me with a cold calculating look. Then, he barked out some kind of order that I couldn't hear, but I knew that whatever it was wasn't good when James' smirk turned into a broad grin.

But before anything could happen, Jasper leaned towards Garrett again and muttered something.

James spun back towards them and growled in anger. His hands were gesturing violently as he pointed at me and then at Jasper.

Garrett looked at me speculatively and then at Jasper and James.

He suddenly made a sharp gesture at James who had become increasingly loud and angry as he shoved Jasper.

Immediately, James snapped his mouth shut and took a step back, but I could see that he was seething under his contained exterior.

Garrett beckoned me, but I still held back, not knowing whether I was walking towards my death.

When I didn't approach, Garrett's eyes narrowed at me and gestured more sharply at me to come forward.

Reluctantly, I walked up to them and stood before Garrett nervously.

"James seems to think you're useless and will only be a drain on our resources," he said, coldly.

I glared at James and snapped, "I wasn't so useless when I saved your life, was I? And you're welcome, by the way."

"Fuck you," James snarled loud enough to catch the attention of the rest of the camp, causing an eerie silence.

I saw a flicker of what looked like amusement in Garrett's eyes before the hard look returned.

"James, if you can't shut your mouth, I'll shut it for you. Now, take these vegetables to my wife before I decide to kick your ass," Garrett snapped, not even looking at him.

Without a word, James shoved the food into the backpack and stomped away.

The rest of the group remained silent as Garrett looked between me and Jasper.

"Jasper has said that he'll vouch for you," Garrett said, looking me in the eyes. "That means you're his responsibility. If you fuck up, he'll be responsible for dealing with you. But if you do something to put the group at risk, then you both become liabilities."

I looked at Jasper in confusion before looking back at Garrett.

"Do you understand me, Edward? If you fuck up badly enough, we won't just kill you. Jasper will take the punishment too," he said.

I looked at Jasper again, not understanding. _Why would he do this?_

But instead of seeing any answers in Jasper's eyes, he looked back at me with a guarded expression.

"Now, go get some food before it's all gone," he said, turning and walking back to his camp site.

And with that, we were dismissed.

I followed Jasper to the fire and dished myself out a bowl of soup and then stood next to the fire, not knowing what to do next.

I looked around at the others and noticed that James had joined a large group of men that made up most of the guards. I could feel the anger pouring off of them as they huddled together talking quietly. At one point, James looked up at me from where he sat in the middle of the group and the look in his eyes was pure hatred.

I looked away, not wanting to cause a fight to start.

I looked for Jasper and found him at his camp site. Jasper didn't share a camp site with anyone else. His was set somewhat apart from the others on the edge of the encampment. From what I'd seen in the last two days, Jasper didn't associate with anyone. He was like a shadow around the camp that no one really noticed, except for Garrett. Garrett called upon Jasper just as much as James for help with the running of the camp.

I walked to his camp site and sat down next to him. Beyond a flicker of his eyes towards me, he ignored me.

We ate in a kind of tense silence, each in our own thoughts.

I didn't understand what had just happened. Why had Jasper put his life on the line for me? It didn't make any sense.

I thought about starting a conversation with Jasper, but I didn't know how to start.

Again, it was Jasper who broke the silence.

"I'll teach you how to hunt. But if James comes after you, you're on your own. If it happens, you should try to kill him. He'll kill you if he has the chance," he said, quietly.

"Why did you vouch for me Jasper?" I asked.

"I have my reasons," he said, not looking up at me from his bowl.

We sat in silence after that, both of us staring into the flames of his small fire.

"What now?" I asked.

"Now, we sleep and tomorrow morning I'll start to teach you how to hunt. I'm giving you a week to learn," he said as he smothered the fire and laid down on a patch of grass.

I laid down as well on the other side of the fire, propping my head up with my coat.

I couldn't sleep, so instead I stared at the people around me.

The camp seemed to be divided into three groups. Families were clustered together in the RVs on the left side of the camp. Then, there were the single women who varied in age from young children to the elderly. They had set up a series of tents in a circle, the openings facing inwards, like their own little campsite. The final group were the guardsmen who had set up under a group of trees, next to the women. There were about ten of them altogether.

Before shutting down for the night, the men gathered with the women, flirting and carousing. Some of the women seemed to be having fun while others seemed uncomfortable with the attention. I watched as a redhead with long curly hair, walked over to James and plopped herself down onto his lap. James smirked and leaned into her neck for a moment, whispering something in her ear, but then looked away. He wasn't focused on the girls or his buddies, but on Garrett's campsite. As he watched Garrett with his wife and daughter, there was a gleam in his eyes that I didn't understand.

The other guardsmen who weren't on duty sat by the fire, playing cards, drinking and smoking. There was a restlessness about them, reminding me of the buzzing of a wasp's nest that had just been kicked.

"Mind your own business, Edward. Don't draw any more attention to yourself than you already have," Jasper muttered to me quietly.

I looked over at Jasper and saw that his eyes were open a crack, staring at me.

My eyes flickered to Garrett's camp site and I noticed that Tanya who sat next to her mother was looking in my direction. I quickly looked away, my eyes returning to James. His eyes were now trained on me. When he made eye contact, his mouth spread into a grin that was anything but friendly.

I broke eye contact quickly and rolled onto my side, facing away from the rest of the camp and tried to force myself to go to sleep.


	4. The Right to Live

**Chapter 4: The Right to Live**

Without wanting to, I found myself becoming used to life at camp. My day had a routine to it and I found that it was something that I'd missed. Before the world fell apart, my week had had structure—school, homework, video games, etc. Often that routine had bored me, but now I craved predictability in my daily life.

For the first week, Jasper and I would leave the camp every morning, so that he could take me through lessons on how to shoot my crossbow and gun. It was really difficult and his expectations were high. By the end of the week, I could shoot things that weren't moving with a fair amount of accuracy, but a moving object was a lot harder.

So, rain or shine, with or without Jasper, I left the camp to practice shooting. Jasper had created a moving target for me by tying a piece of wood to a rope and hanging it from a tree. When it was swung, it made a fairly good moving target.

Jasper seemed unimpressed by my progress though. Thankfully, he didn't say anything to Garrett about regretting his decision to vouch for me, but I kept waiting for it. My life was essentially in his hands and I didn't even know why. He still wouldn't tell me why he saved me and wouldn't share anything personal about himself. So, even though I spent a lot of time with him, I knew less about him than many other people in the camp.

Besides training, the rest of my days were spent either guarding the camp or foraging for food. I led some members of our camp to the Richardson's farm as well as other farms that I'd heard about. After that, a lot of people's opinions about me changed. Now, I wasn't looked at with distrust every time I walked through the camp, but instead greeted with friendly smiles.

Jasper warned me again about drawing attention to myself, but I didn't understand what he thought I was doing wrong. By being standoffish, I thought Jasper drew more attention to himself than I did.

As Jasper's protégé, Garrett began including me in meetings he had with Jasper and James. At first, James was vehemently against it, causing a lot of friction between himself and Garrett. But one day it was as if he had a complete change of heart and was actually quite nice to me.

I thought that maybe he'd finally come to accept that I wasn't a threat when he started inviting me on hunts. I wanted to agree in order to stay on James good side, but Jasper always seemed to have something for me to do on those occasions.

I resented Jasper at those moments. He was only two years older than me, really only a year and a half, but he acted like he was so much wiser. I wasn't a kid any more. I was fourteen and a half. He was only sixteen. That didn't make him anything special. But because he vouched for me, Jasper had control over what I could and could not do.

I was sure that rejecting James' offers to include me on hunts would just cause him to start hating me again, but James barely acknowledged the fact that I was turning him down every time.

"You're such an idiot, Edward. Open your eyes. They're just pretending to be friendly. The minute you turn your back they're glaring daggers at you and soon it'll probably be real daggers. You don't understand people like James. People like him don't have friends, they have allies. And allies are a means to an end. If they wear out their usefulness, they're easily disposed of. You won't survive in this world if you stay this naïve," Jasper hissed at me one night as we settled down for the night.

"Fuck off, Jasper. I'm not naïve. Just because you don't fit in doesn't mean that you need to drag me down with you," I grumbled.

I saw anger flare in his eyes at my words.

"You just don't get it. This is not about fitting in. This is about surviving in a world full of bullies and criminals. Soft hearted naïve people do not survive. It's only the people who will do whatever it takes to get what they want in this world that will live. I bet you've never had to fight for a thing in your life. Everything was handed to you on a silver platter. Well, not everyone has grown up in that kind of luxury. Some people have had to fight and scrounge for every bit of luxury they've had because no one would step in to care for them. It's these people who survive because they've already learned not to trust people simply because they're nice to you. You'll see soon enough, Edward. This is how it happened with the other guys that James thought were a threat. He cozied up to them and when they let their guard down, he murdered them in their sleep," Jasper responded in a hushed voice.

It was the most that Jasper had ever said to me and it made an impression because he said it with more emotion than he'd ever shown before. What he said seemed more personal than a simple lecture.

After that, I paid more attention to James' group and how they behaved when they thought I wasn't looking. It was around that time that I got the sense that I was being watched. I never actually saw anyone, but there were times that I'd get a chill from what felt like eyes burning into the back of my head.

I grudgingly told Jasper about it and he gave me a "I told you so" look. He felt that it was probably Alistair who was James' right hand man.

"They don't like the fact that you have Tanya hanging off of you all the time. She's the ultimate prize," he said to me in his quiet voice. "She's gonna get you in trouble, Edward. So, stop thinking with your dick," he grumbled.

He thought that I wanted Tanya, but I didn't. She just wouldn't leave me alone. Whenever I had time to relax, she was at my side and wouldn't stop touching me. She seemed to constantly find an excuse to rub my arm, brush a hand across my leg, lean into my shoulder.

I couldn't deny that she stirred things in me that I wasn't comfortable with. I would find myself sometimes noticing her curves and how soft her skin looked, but I didn't want to be some hormonal kid who couldn't stop making googly eyes at girls with boobs and nice legs.

Thankfully, after a while of not showing interest, Tanya gave up in a sulk and left me alone.

After about a month of being in the camp, I found myself actually starting to enjoy my new life. I always kept what Jasper had in my mind. However, the more time passed without a fight breaking out between myself and James, I started to think that maybe Jasper had been exaggerating about James.

Garrett was a strong leader that took an interest in me and would often encourage me to sit with him and his family at night. It was at that time that I learned Garrett had a plan for our group beyond just surviving. He was trying to create a new civilization, one where he selected only the strongest to join. One night as we sat around the central fire, he talked about his philosophy.

"With animals, those that are weak are soon killed off or die on their own in the wild. The animals that survive are the ones that are healthy and strong. However, when humanity became civilized, we developed ways to protect the weak through technology and laws. Therefore, the weak members of society survived and started breeding which led to a frailty in the human race. This plague of the undead is bringing us back to the way that the human race should be. The strong survive, the weak die," he said.

After his speech, Garrett left us for the night. Once he was gone, I stared into the fire thinking about what he'd said. It was ruthless and cruel, but was he wrong?

He seemed to reinforce everything that Jasper had been telling me. This new world was brutal and not a place for people who were fragile or too tender-hearted. You had to be ruthless and less emotional to survive.

Garrett had become more of a father to me than my own absentee father had ever been. I did whatever Garrett asked of me with a smile on my face because I felt like an essential member of Garrett's inner circle. I volunteered to go on trips for him where we'd look for food and survivors that might be deemed strong enough to survive this world.

The scouting parties were told to keep a look out for people. But instead of approaching them, we were to report back to Garrett. If he found that they'd be valuable members of the community, then he would send people to retrieve them.

He was ruthless when choosing who could stay. When people were brought in, they were given a probation period to prove themselves. If they were found to be too weak, they were kicked out and if they refused to leave they were killed. Women under the age of forty were always taken in, but that didn't mean that their travelling companions were accepted. One particular case shocked me and made me question for a brief moment Garrett's philosophy. One of the hunting parties found a twenty-something woman travelling with her elderly parents. Garrett told her that she could join our group as long as she left her parents behind. She refused, so Garrett kicked them all out.

The camp was split under Garrett's rule. Many people were unhappy with the fact that Garrett was bringing so many people into the group. They felt that with every new member that we brought into the fold, our lives were in more danger. I didn't totally disagree with them, but Garrett argued that every day more and more people were dying and by the time we found a defensible home there may not be enough people left to repopulate the human race.

Tensions began to mount between James' group and Garrett's followers as the camp expanded. It was getting to the point where at times James would pick random things to fight with Garrett about. It was often something as petty as who got the best share of a kill. A battle of wills would ensue, but usually it was James who would back down. However, these little battles allowed James to make his point. Garrett was not God and if he stumbled, there were people to take his place.

I tried to make myself less conspicuous as these incidents increased and stuck close to Garrett and Jasper, not wanting to rekindle James hatred of me. But James attitude towards me never changed. Even when he'd argue with Garrett, he was nice to me.

"You seem to be settling in here quite nicely, Edward," Jasper's friend Alistair said one night when I was getting ready to turn in.

"It's nice to be around people again," I said, neutrally.

James sidled up next to Alistair.

"I do believe you're right," James said with a grin as he smoothed his hair back into its messy pony tail. "It'll be even better when we settle and can start repopulating the human race, eh? We'll have the pick of the litter," he said with a wink.

I flinched at his casual tone. I'd noticed how James and his guards treated the women of the camp. They were friendly enough, but they treated them more like possessions than people. Often fights would break out among his men when two would be interested in the same woman. They reminded me of a pack of animals fighting over a kill.

When I saw what they were doing, I couldn't stop myself from thinking about my mom or even Anna and it made my skin crawl.

I mentioned it to Garrett one night and his answer surprised me.

"It's the nature of our species, Edward. Men, deep down, are nothing but beasts. I'm not saying that we shouldn't fight against it, but a certain amount of pack behavior is going to emerge when you put a bunch of alpha males together. We need to ignore it for the greater good for the time being. Once we've settled into a more permanent home, we can establish some rules."

Garrett's opinion unsettled me. I agreed with a lot of his philosophy, but not on this. Women were not possessions to be used as men saw fit. It bothered me even more how Garrett would turn a blind eye to it and yet keep his wife and daughter protected at all times.

Jasper seemed to agree with me. I saw that whenever he noticed the men making predatory advances towards the women in camp, he would try to distract their focus.

So, day by day, I was torn between the bond that I'd formed with Garrett and the brutality with which he viewed our new life. The violence that he was allowing to go on in camp couldn't be contained and it was only a matter of time before it exploded.

And then one night it finally did.

As I lay in my bedroll, I heard a scuffle erupt at Garrett's camp.

"You can't stop me, old man!" I heard James snarl.

I sat up and looked around me, reaching for my shotgun.

Jasper had rolled out of his blankets at the same time and was now crouched with his gun held out in front of him.

When he saw me looking at him, he gestured for me to stay quiet before slipping into the trees.

But I couldn't stay where I was. I could tell that the tension that had built over the months had finally boiled over and people were going to get hurt.

I crept towards Garrett's camp site, trying to be as stealthy as possible.

"Nice and easy, hoss," James said in a cheerful twang, raising the barrel of his shotgun at Garrett.

James and Garrett were practically the same height, but James was in better condition. Life as a ranger and guard had taken away any softness to James. He was all hard lines and sinewy muscle. Dressed in worn camo-pants, muddy work boots and a leather coat, James was a threatening figure as his pale blue eyes narrowed at Garrett.

Out of the darkness, Alistair appeared behind Garrett and kicked his legs out from under him.

At the sight, I moved more quickly to the camp site and pointed my shotgun at James. However, it was at that moment that I realized that I'd forgotten to load it, something that Jasper had told me to do every night. He said that I had to always be ready to fight and now I was experiencing first-hand what he'd been trying to teach me. I wasn't prepared to fight and now I might very well die because I hadn't listened to him.

I stopped about eight feet away from James, concentrating as hard as I could on pretending that my shotgun was loaded.

"Drop your weapon, James," I said, calmly.

James eyes flickered to mine, but beyond that he ignored me.

"I assume that this is about what happened yesterday," Garrett said, bluntly.

Yesterday, James had returned from a hunt full of energy as he dragged the carcass of a deer into camp. However, his excited energy soon turned vicious as he chose to antagonize Garrett again.

"_We're eating good tonight, folks!" he shouted and the camp clapped in excitement._

_It was the best meal that I'd had in a long time. The venison stew filled my stomach and made me drowsy as I sat next to the fire._

_I was practically asleep when I heard Garrett snap loudly at James._

"_Let go of her, James," Garrett snarled._

_My eyes snapped open, looking to the other side of the fire._

_James was sitting on one of the logs with Tanya tucked securely under his arm._

"_I think she's comfortable where she is. Aren't you, sweets?" James said, roughly kissing the side of Tanya's head._

_I looked at Tanya and saw that while she looked stressed, she didn't flinch away from James as I thought she would. She wasn't even fighting to get away from him. _

"_I'm warning you, James. Let go of my daughter. I'm only saying this once," Garrett growled, not seeming to understand the danger that he was in._

_For a few tense moments, James stared at Garrett. Then, he let go of Tanya and stood up. _

"_No harm, no foul, hoss," he said with a grin. "I'll see you later, Tanya."_

_After he left, Tanya scurried away from the fire and into her tent while Garrett sat frozen looking in the direction where James had gone._

"I've decided that I'm not going to be taking any more orders from you… I think that we need a change in management…" James said with a smirk.

"Lower the gun and I'll let you leave the camp," Garrett responded.

"Well, let's just think about that for a moment. I think that there may be a lot of people here that would have a problem with that," James said.

It was at that moment that the hair on the back of my neck stood up as I felt the presence of others standing just outside the ring of firelight.

Garrett must have sensed it too because suddenly I saw a flicker of fear in his eyes.

"That's exactly right, hoss,"James said, his voice calm. His teeth gleamed as he smiled a reptilian smile, taking a step towards Garrett. "You're not God. You're nothin' but an old man that has worn out his usefulness."

Garrett climbed to his feet, but then stood his ground. I'm sure he knew that the next few moments were critical to his survival and he was trying to show the rest of the camp that he was not weak.

"I don't want any bloodshed, but I guarantee that if you don't step down, yours and mine are gonna be the first blood that's shed," Garrett said in as reasonable voice as possible. "I don't think you want that James."

"I don't think it will come to that, old man," James said.

He called out suddenly to one of his comrades in the dark. "Felix?"

A voice answered from the woods. "Got'em, James."

Felix appeared out of the woods with Kate trapped against him as he held a knife to her throat. He was a young guy that I'd seen James with before, but I hadn't really paid attention to him. He was abnormally thin with long skinny arms riddled with jailhouse tattoos sticking out of a faded camouflage jacket that had the sleeves torn off. His tics and constant darting eyes made him seem pitiful. Now, though, I thought that his nervous behavior actually made him more dangerous because he was clearly unstable.

Then, to Felix left, Marcus a large thug that had been newly recruited by James stepped out of the woods, dragging Tanya by the arm.

At that moment, I knew that there would be no peaceful resolution. James was going to kill Garrett and then any one of who supported him, starting with me.

"Let them go, James!" Garrett snarled, his calm exterior shattered.

"Now, why would I do that, hoss?" James asked with a cruel grin.

"Please, don't hurt my family," Garrett begged. "Kill me. Take it all. Just don't hurt them. They need to survive."

I saw James grin turn cold as he raised his gun.

"Hold on, now," I heard a voice, speak from the darkness. "There's no reason to be hasty, James."

I looked over James' shoulder and saw that Jasper had materialized out of the darkness with his gun pointed at Felix.

He made eye contact with me and then at my gun before narrowing his eyes at James.

I realized that he was telling me to be ready to shoot James while he took care of Felix.

A sinking feeling filled my stomach as I realized that my stupidity for not loading my shotgun was going to kill us all.

"Jasper, you and I have never had a problem besides over that suck-hole over there," James said calmly as he jerked his chin towards me. "We won't have to have a problem once I get rid of the two of them. You hear me, man?"

"I don't think so, James," Jasper said, calmly before spinning towards Felix and shooting him squarely in the head.

"NOW, EDWARD!" he shouted as he lunged towards the other man holding Tanya.

I dropped the gun at my feet and rushed James with my knife in hand, but it was too late.

The blast of the gun being discharged blinded me for a moment as I lunged towards James.

Knocking him to the ground, I slammed my blade down blindly, but instead of striking flesh I struck the ground with a jarring impact.

I felt arms grab me and drag me off of him, but I continued to fight slashing at whoever had a hold of me. Curses and yelps of pain escaped those that I was able to reach with my knife, but their grip on me never faltered.

By the time they had me under control, James was on his feet and in front of me.

He grasped me by the throat and squeezed, causing the fight to leave me.

"You alright, Alistair?" James asked over my shoulder.

"I'm good J, but he stuck Sam," Alistair responded, wrenching one of my arms behind my back hard enough that I thought it would break.

"Sam? How you doin?" James asked.

"He stuck me, J. Right in the gut. Oh god, my innards," the man groaned.

James eyes flashed fire as he looked back to me.

"Well, that seals your fate, Eddie… I thought you may have been one of us when you dropped the gun. But really you're just a little kid who forgot to load his shotgun," he said with a laugh.

I felt the shame and anger fill me.

He shook my head viciously by the throat before letting me go, which caused me to sag in the grip of Alistair and whoever else was holding me as the air rushed back into my lungs.

"Felix?" James called out into the darkness.

"Dead…" someone said.

"Jasper?" James said with a growl.

I felt my heart skip a beat.

"Gone… I lost him in the trees," another man said.

"GOD DAMMIT!" James shouted.

Spinning back to me, he punched me in the stomach and then twice in the face. "Hog tie him. I'll deal with him later when I have time to savour the moment," he snarled at the men holding me.

My two captors dragged me to the fire and roughly pulled my arms behind me.

Jerking my legs and arms together, the rope bit into my skin as I was thrown to the ground.

Lying on my stomach, I was left face to face with Garrett's body.

Blood was dripping out of the hole in his forehead, congealing in a pool under his head.

I clenched my eyes shut, not able to look into Garrett's death glazed eyes.

I was a failure. I'd caused his death because I'd let my guard down, trusting in Garrett's ability to keep the camp safe.

I opened my eyes and stared at the body of the man I'd come to love.

The last shred of my humanity leached from my body as I watched the blood drip from his.

I went in and out of consciousness as I was left on my own.

I heard the sounds of the camp around me. There were whimpers and shouts as James took control of the group by force.

"This is my camp now! You will follow my rules just as you followed Garrett's and if you obey me I'll let you live. You will also obey my guards, just as you do me. They speak with my voice. We will do what we want, take what we want. You'll accept that if you want to live," James stated coldly to the assembled people.

There were a few muffled protests, but they were quickly followed by gun fire.

Then there was silence.

"Okay, if there are no more questions, it's time for bed. I'll lay down the rest of the rules tomorrow," James finished.

No one came for me that night.

I was left tied up, my muscles strained in their unnatural position. The left side of my face pressed into the dirt once I was able to roll onto my side away from Garrett.

I was now facing the camp and able to analyze my current situation.

Besides a few campfires still flickering, the camp was dark. No one was guarding me. They felt like I was no longer a threat.

But I was not done. I was going to survive this and I was going to make them pay.

My eyes continued to move from tent to tent, trying to think about how I'd get free in order to exact my revenge.

It was then that I noticed that one of the tents was slightly open. I stared into the shadowed recesses of that small gap in the entryway and saw the flicker of eyes reflected by firelight looking back at me. But then they were gone.

The next day the camp awoke and went about their day to day lives like nothing had happened. _They were sheep, every last one of them_, I thought, darkly. They were happy enough to follow whatever leader was in control at the moment.

No one looked my way in sympathy. In contrast, many who had smiled at me in greeting in the past now looked at me with disgust.

When a few of the guys my age dragged Garrett's corpse away that morning, one of them actually had the nerve to spit on me.

"Worthless…" Paul hissed, as he strode away from me.

I tensed at his words. I wasn't worthless, at least not anymore. I had learned my lesson.

The other guy Marcus kicked me in the stomach and growled down at me. "You're gonna die and I'm gonna laugh."

Marcus was one of the worst at the camp. At least with James, he had a motive for his cruelty. Marcus seemed to enjoy causing other people pain. He was the most aggressive with the women at camp and was always the first of James' men to jump at the chance to strong arm anyone.

I fought to control my anger because I needed to be clear headed.

All day, James was busy re-organizing the camp, leaving me hog tied under the bright sun.

Every once in a while, he would look at me with a grin on his face and I knew that he was leaving me there to torture me. The muscles in my arms and legs burned with pain and it was quickly spreading to the rest of my body. I tried to maintain focus, but the pain was causing me to go in and out of consciousness.

I tried to do everything I could to stay awake and make a plan, but it was hard.

There were at least six guards, maybe more, and each one seemed heavily armed, with plenty of ammo. But the one thing that I could see that could work in my favor was that they were cocky. They'd spent the last day and night congratulating themselves, almost like they'd forgotten that humans were not the only danger that they could face. They barely guarded the perimeter. Instead they drank and fooled around with the women of the camp. All it would take would be for one undead to be let loose in the camp and their little army would fall apart.

I let out a long breath and closed my eyes because unless I was released from these ropes there was nothing I could do.

When I was jostled awake, it was pitch black outside. I was disoriented and in agony, but I still struggled against whoever was pulling at my ropes.

"Stop fighting me," a soft voice spoke above me.

I froze at the feminine voice.

I felt something cold at my wrists that began sawing away at the ropes.

When the rope finally snapped apart, I fought to not cry out in pain. I couldn't move, the agony was overpowering as blood throbbed back into my arms.

When my legs were also released, the person helped me sit up.

I peered into the dark at my rescuer and was shocked to find that it was Garrett's wife Kate.

While I'd become quite close to Garrett, Kate had always been standoffish. So, it was a shock that she would have risked herself for me.

We stared at each other for a moment, before she spoke to me in a whisper, "Make them pay for what they've done to my husband. Just don't hurt my daughter."

And with that, she slipped back into the darkness, leaving the knife she'd cut my bindings with at my feet.

I dragged myself away from the fire and into the shadows in order to give my limbs time to work and to formulate a plan.

Self-preservation did not factor into my plan, nor was it to save others. I wanted James and his guards dead. That was my only thought.

A slow grin spread across my face when a plan materialized in my head.

Some guards that were put on watch by James were less careful than others. A few of his new recruits barely walked the perimeter when they were on duty.

At a little after midnight, Marcus was put on guard duty for the right side of the camp. There were others guarding the perimeter, but there was a lot of distance between each one of them. I heaved a sigh of relief because Marcus was vicious, but lazy. When James was watching, Marcus followed his orders to a tee. However, the minute James turned his back Marcus would find a way to slack off.

I didn't feel bad for what I was about to do to him.

I crept behind one of the trees that grew at the edge of our camp and found a large branch to use as a weapon. Then, I waited for him to walk by. He was bigger than me, so I needed the element of surprise in order for it to be quiet.

So, I waited for my opportunity.

And I waited, and waited.

Marcus stood at his post, paying attention to what was happening around him for once.

I internally growled as my opportunity for revenge was slipping through my fingers.

Finally, Marcus stretched his arms behind his head with a yawn and started to walk away from his post, probably to go take a piss.

I waited with my wooden cudgel in my hand ready to take my first human life.

Marcus was barely paying attention to putting one foot in front of the other as he strode by my hiding place. So, when I slammed the piece of wood down on top of his head, he barely made a sound as I took him completely by surprise.

He fell bonelessly at my feet, so I grabbed him under the arms and dragged him further into the trees.

I got down on my knees behind him and pushed him up in a sitting position with my hand around his throat. Then, I reached for my knife.

My hands shook as I started to reach around to the front of Marcus neck with my knife. Even though I wanted to take my revenge on James crew, I was having a hard time slitting Marcus' throat.

"Edward… what are you doing?" a hushed voice came from the darkness.

It was Jasper.

Without making a sound, he crept out of the darkness and crouched by my side.

"I'm going to avenge Garrett. James and his crew do not deserve to live and I have just the right form of punishment. I'm going to kill one of them so that they can become an undead who will slaughter them all."

Jasper reached out and grabbed my wrist as I pressed it against Marcus' throat. I was shaking badly now, but I had to steel myself. I was too weak. I needed to be a killer. I'd forgotten that truth at camp, leading me to go to sleep with my shotgun empty.

"You can't do this, Edward. It's wrong," Jasper whispered.

"You told me that I should kill James if I got the chance because he'd kill me," I hissed at him.

Jasper never made sense. He was always contradicted himself. He said I was weak, but now that I was trying to be strong, he was against it.

"I told you that you should kill James if he attacked you, but this is in cold blood Edward. This is not self defense," he tried to reason with me as he tugged on my arm that held the knife.

"Jasper, you need to step away. I'm doing this…" I said, pressing my knife more firmly against Marcus skin.

"Edward-" he began, but was cut off by the close range of a gun blast.

A bullet passed so close to my head that I could practically feel it brush against me.

In shock, my hands fell away from Marcus and I scrambled backwards on my knees.

I peered through the trees and saw Alistair striding towards us with his gun raised.

Another blast erupted hitting the ground at my feet.

"Come on, Eddie. Face me in a fair fight," Alistair said with a grin as he squinted into the darkness of the trees. He couldn't see exactly where I was, but was firing into the woods anyway.

I stood up, knowing that this was my opportunity to be a man.

"If you give me a gun, I'll face you," I snarled at him.

Jasper grabbed my arm, but I shook him off.

I saw a smile spread across Alistair's face and he beckoned to me.

"Okay, Eddie, my boy. I'll give you a gun. I've never turned down a good figh-" he began, but before he could say anything more I saw a blur of blond hair come out of one of the tents behind him.

He didn't even know what hit him as the blast from Kate's gun tore into his back.

For a moment, I don't think he even felt the pain of it. Strangely, he laughed when he looked down at himself and saw a blood stain spreading across his shirt. Then, almost like puppet whose strings had been cut, he dropped to the ground.

Kate barely paused after shooting Alistair. Instead she strode to the tents of other members of James' guardsmen and shot through the very walls of the tent.

All hell broke loose at that point. Stunned guards poured out of their tents with their guns drawn looking for their attackers.

I broke through the trees at a run, grabbing the shotgun from Alistair's hands and took aim at one of the guards who had zeroed in on Kate. My gun shot caught Paul in the shoulder, knocking him off balance enough that he wasn't prepared to dodge Kate's bullet which caught him in the chest.

I tried to reach Kate, wanting to protect her. But I was not able to get to her in time. James appeared out of the darkness, gun drawn and shot her point blank in the chest.

James barely batted an eye before turning his gun on another target. He seemed to have no purpose for who was shooting. He saw any person who wasn't one of his guards as a threat and shot them.

Person after person he shot down until he saw me. With a vicious grin, he began walking towards me shooting as he walked.

I raised my gun as well and started firing.

I felt a bullet slice a furrow along my left arm which caused a searing pain to shoot through me, but the adrenaline pumping through me was enough to keep me going.

One of my shots struck James in the leg, causing him to stumble and fall to one knee.

A feeling of exhilaration filled me as I saw that my goal for his death was within my reach.

It was like a duel in which neither one of us was deviating from the goal of killing the other.

But before I could reach him, I was distracted by the shrill sound of a child screaming.

Just that small blip in my concentration was my undoing. I felt a gun blast hit me in my shoulder and I fell backwards and landed on my back.

Frantically, I rolled to my stomach, needing to finish off James, but I saw one of his guardsmen dragging him away.

I struggled to my feet, using my right arm to push me up. My left arm hung uselessly at my side because of the gun shot, so I couldn't even hold my gun properly.

As I looked around for another weapon, my eyes zeroed in on where Alistair's body had once rested. With a dawning feeling of horror, I realized that he had turned.

"JASPER!" I shouted. "JASPER, THEY'RE TURNING. THE DEAD ARE COMING BACK TO LIFE!"

I saw the silhouette of Jasper appear from behind the tents and then he was running to my side.

"Jesus Christ, Edward. We need to get these people out of here," he gasped between ragged breaths.

I looked around the war zone that had once been our camp in stunned stupidity.

There were people running everywhere screaming and crying, dripping blood.

"Let's get as many as we can onto the RVs," Jasper grunted, breaking into a run.

We grabbed anyone we could and dragged them with us to the RVs.

When we reached the large vehicles, I shoved two children and a woman through the door of one of them and turned back to the camp site looking for more people.

What I saw almost froze my heart. People I knew were now walking corpses attacking anyone within their reach.

Jasper sped ahead of me back into the blood bath, shoving people towards the RVs and away from the undead.

I ran after him, using my knife to cut down any undead within my reach. But I didn't have the strength to kill them. My one arm was useless and the other was weakening by the minute from my steadily leaking blood. So, instead, I tried to save as many people as I could.

It wasn't many.

Either they'd been turned into the undead or they'd escaped into the darkness, but either way there were not many people left.

Finally, when it seemed that there were no people left that we could save, Jasper and I turned back towards the RVs.

All the RVs were gone. Only one minivan remained. The rest had left us.

We threw open the backdoor to the minivan and threw ourselves inside, slamming the door shut just as the undead reached the vehicle.

I collapsed onto one of the seats, my head slamming back against the window frame with a thud.

"Are you okay, sir?" a soft voice asked.

I forced my eyes open and saw that it was a family who had waited for us, a husband and wife with two young kids. The little boy who spoke to me was one that I had rescued.

I tried to speak, but my lips felt numb and everything was beginning to turn grey around the edges.

I heard the sounds of talking around me, but I couldn't make out what was being said.

Eventually, I gave up trying to remain conscious and let the darkness take me.


	5. The Truth about Families

**Chapter 5: The Truth about Families**

**JASPER**

**Four months ago**

The streets in my neighbourhood were more full than normal as people wandered the streets, sensing the strangeness of so many military rushing towards the base.

Starting only a short time ago, we began to hear sirens in the distance, blaring repetitive horn blasts. The tenseness in the streets turned to fear as people started discussing whether they should get out of town "just in case."

Seeing as the army base was only a few miles away, I was scared. I wanted to ask Dad who was a soldier on the base, what was going on. But Dad had not been back for the last two days which was strange. He'd never been gone this long before. I had not called the base though. I learned early on never to question Dad.

I ran home as cars in the neighbourhood began to fill with people who'd decided that it was better to be safe than sorry.

But no one was home.

Even though I was scared about what was happening, I was more scared of Dad. So I did what he always told me. As the youngest, it was my job to do most of the housework. And no matter what, I wasn't going to shirk my duties. Dad had beaten me to a pulp on the rare days that he'd come home and supper wasn't ready or the laundry wasn't done. Every time, I wanted to say it was unfair that I was expected to do all of the work, but I didn't want to give Dad any other reason to hate me.

But while I worked, I couldn't stop thinking about all the horrible things that could be happening. Dad made my brothers and I watch the news every night to keep us "aware of the shit show." Terrorist threats, chemical spills, every horrible thing I'd ever heard from on the news went through my head over and over again.

When two hours had passed and no one called or came to the house, I decided to check the street again. As I approached the outskirts of the town, I saw that there were soldiers setting up a barricade. Soldiers milled around like ants, talking on walkie-talkies, building the barricade, talking to each other in clipped hushed tones. The soldiers were heavily armed, more than I'd ever seen. Each one of them was carrying a gun of some sort, many of which were machine guns.

Now, I was terrified. I scanned the soldiers for any sign of my dad, but didn't recognize anyone. Hesitantly, I approached one of the soldiers.

"Excuse me, sir," I said, keeping a safe distance from the nearest soldier.

At the sound of my voice, the soldier whipped towards me, gun raised.

"D… Do you know… Sergeant Whitlock? He's my dad," I asked, barely above a whisper as I looked down the barrel of the gun pointed at my head.

"Get out of here, kid!" the soldier said, and shoved my shoulder, knocking me to the ground.

One of the soldiers was busy talking into a walkie-talkie when suddenly over the speaker came a loud hissing noise followed by a man screaming.

There was stunned silence for a moment from the soldiers before a flurry of activity began with the tell-tale _click click_ of all of them turning the safety off of their guns.

"Go on! Get out of here! Go home and lock yourself inside!" the soldier nearest me shouted, pointing in the direction away from the barricade.

I backed away from the soldier for several steps before turning and bolting back towards my neighbourhood.

My only choice was to go home and wait for my dad or brothers.

A short while later, my dad, Jonas, came flying through the front door, making me jump. Dad was splattered with red splotches and carried a machine gun slung across his back and a pistol in his waistband. He ran towards his room and came out carrying two duffle bags. He chucked one at me and ordered me to pack essentials and make it quick. I was extremely confused but didn't argue. I just picked up the duffle bag at my feet and ran to my room and packed.

The thoughts of why Dad had guns and why he was splattered with blood clouded my mind. _Was he hurt? Was someone else hurt? Did Dad kill someone?_ I gulped, zipping up the duffle bag. I trusted Dad. He wasn't a nice guy, but he wasn't a murderer. There had to be another reason for the blood.

"Jasper! Let's get moving!" Dad barked, appearing in my doorway, with a duffle bag over his shoulder. I nodded and raced after him out of the room and down the stairs.

"Come," he motioned, making for the front door. The millions of questions I wanted to ask crowded my brain but nothing came out of my mouth as Dad pulled open the front door.

Running down the street, Dad didn't give the soldiers or the barricade a look as he turned in the opposite direction.

"Dad, what's going on?" I finally asked as we raced through the streets. Silence echoed for what felt like eternity. Then, Dad finally answered, leaving me wide eyed, fear filled and even more confused.

"Don't ask questions, boy!" Dad snarled. "Run…"

Remembering Dad's hard fists, I shut up and followed him towards the outskirts of town.

* * *

Outside was a nightmare. Literally, it was a thing of nightmares. I finally realized that the dead had come back to life when I saw in the parking lot outside the pub where my brothers worked a man staggering towards us with his intestines hanging out.

I threw up at the sight which caused my father to look at me with disdain.

Then, I heard a voice come from behind me.

"What… the… fuck?" my brother Luke said in a shocked voice and he was soon echoed by Cameron.

"You're seeing correctly, boys. Now, get over it and let's get moving," Dad said in a gruff voice.

I looked at my dad in shock. How could he be so unfazed by the disgusting sight?

The next dead that we saw was a woman who was hunched over a man. She was essentially ripping the man apart. I heard gasps from my brothers as she stood up and staggered towards them and was actually able to get close enough to reach for them. It seemed like they were frozen place, unable to process what was happening in front of them.

"What the fuck! She's eating him!" Cameron gasped in shock.

Dad spun towards them and shot the dead woman who had grabbed a hold of Luke's arm. Luke's eyes were wide and staring, unable to look away but also unable to move.

"You idiot!" Dad snarled at Luke. "Snap out of it! Are you idiots really not getting it? The dead are walking."

All three of us jumped back as the man whom the woman had been eating began to twitch.

Then, as one, Cameron and Luke ran down the street, following our father and dragging me behind them.

We ran for hours without a break. By the time, we collapsed exhausted none of us were capable of taking one more step. But after only about fifteen minutes, Dad had us on our feet again running through a wilderness of trees and rock.

My legs were all torn up from where I'd trip and scrape my shins as I tried to scramble over rocks and overturned trees.

"Jesus, Jasper. Pay attention to where you're going moron," Luke growled as he stopped me from falling by yanking me up by my arm.

The dead from the army base had spread out into the countryside and had been chasing us all day.

I couldn't help myself from continually looking behind me because it felt like they were within reach of me. That was another reason that I kept falling and was getting further and further behind my family.

I saw the dead periodically as they stumbled through the trees. They were torn up, missing body parts and flesh, with injuries a normal human wouldn't be able to move with.

A sob caught in my throat at the feeling of desperation that took hold of me. They were going to get us. I just knew it.

"Keep moving, boy!" Dad snarled, appearing out the trees and scaring the shit out of me.

Nodding, I pushed myself up harder. We weren't going to stop and if I couldn't keep up, Dad would leave me. He didn't like me. I'd known that most of my life. Because of our shared blood, Dad tolerated me but that was about it.

After what felt like hours, it seemed like we'd finally lost the dead that had been following us, so we dropped to the ground trying to catch our breaths.

"Do you think the army will contain be able to contain the outbreak?" Luke asked Dad.

"Don't think so. By the time I left the base, the idiots were just gunning everyone on the streets dead or alive. Which just made more of the dead things… idiots…" Dad snarled. "They should have just bombed the whole town…"

"But innocent people are still there!" I gasped before snapping my mouth shut and looking at the ground.

I was showing weakness. Any empathy for other people was considered weak in my dad's eyes. It would usually be at this point when I would get a backhand to the face for being a "pansy."

Before this all happened, he'd been planning to send me to a military camp for the summer to toughen me up.

"What's going to happen to all of us?" I asked, quietly.

"We're going to become an endangered species," Dad grunted in response.

"But what if-" I began, but was hit in the side of the head by my father before I was able to finish my sentence.

I flinched and cringed away from him.

"Now, isn't the time for _what ifs_ and worrying about strangers. It's going to get a lot worse before it gets better. Hell, it probably won't even get better, but you adapt and survive. If I even hear any more _what ifs_, you sorry piece of shit are gonna wish it were you back in that town. Now get your asses up. Let's move!" he roared, turning his back and striding away.

* * *

**Three months ago**

The makeshift refugee camp was overrun. The dead were everywhere, getting lost amidst the mass of people screaming, running, crying. My eyes darted from one direction to the next, everywhere around me, looking for the best direction to make my exit from the camp. People were trying to fight them, trying to save their families, but it was useless. They should be running, not fight. The camp was gone. Screams pierced the air as people were pulled from their feet by the dead who used to be their friends.

I was suddenly shoved forward by someone hitting my back. As I turned, I watched the woman who had run into me, being grabbed by one of the dead. The woman's terrified eyes looked at me, as she screamed. She was looking to me for help, but I turned away and didn't look back. She was already lost and I wouldn't be next.

Dad, Lucas, and Cameron had left me at the camp three weeks ago, saying that I was slowing them down.

In the weeks leading up to joining the camp, I tried to learn how to hunt and shoot things, but I'd never held a gun in my life before. Dad wanted nothing to do with me, but at the beginning Lucas and Cameron tried to teach me how to survive.

I'd gotten pretty good at setting snares, but I could only hit a target with my shot gun half of the time and I couldn't fight hand to hand.

When we'd reached the refugee camp, Dad left me in the part that was for the children. There were a few teenagers my age, but most of them were younger. Things like comic books, toys, and hand held games with batteries had been collected for us to play with, which seemed ridiculous to me. The world in which people my age were entertained by comic books was over and gone, at least for me.

Lucas was the one who dropped by to tell me that they were leaving. He said that I would be better off at the refugee camp because I couldn't keep up with them. Dad and Cameron didn't even come to say goodbye.

For a few weeks, I wandered around the camp like a ghost. I just didn't give a shit anymore. What was the point in being scared when there really wasn't any point in living in this hell hole?

I spent my time people watching, studying how they behaved in a group, what they did when they were under pressure. I learned a lot about people during that time. I learned survivors fell into two groups, either ruthless or "clingers" to ruthless people. I'd been one of those clingers, but now I was alone. There was no room for empathy in this was no one who cared whether I lived or died, so I learned not to care too.

I also spent my time at the edge of the camp learning how to shoot—cross bow, shot gun, pistols—anything I could get my hands on. And after a few weeks of constant practice I got better.

I realized that Dad got what he always wanted. I wasn't weak anymore.

So, when the perimeter of the refugee camp was breached, I wasn't really fazed by it. I'd known that it was coming. I'd seen how there were gaps in the perimeter where no guards ventured. I'd seen that people weren't training on how to use a variety of weapons. All they were learning about was how to use a gun.

So, when the dead invaded the camp, it was lost before anyone even had the chance to fight back.

Evading the dead was easy when you didn't care. The dead weren't coordinated or intelligent in their movements so when you were careful and paid attention to your surroundings you could pretty well walk away from the monsters. And that's what I did. I walked away from the carnage and didn't look back.

I'd learned two valuable lessons at the camp. One was "Don't give a shit and you'll be okay." The other was "you can't trust anyone."

* * *

**Now**

Edward and I left the Chapman family a few days ago. They'd decided that they were going to head south where Kathleen's parents were from. Edward and I just didn't seem to fit into that plan.

So we struck out on our own without a real plan for what we were doing.

Since leaving the camp, Edward was different, harder. The naïve attitude that I'd hounded him about seemed to have disappeared in an instant. Now, he was angry and sharp in his words and actions.

We barely talked, joined together by nothing more than the fact that it was safer to travel together than alone. Between the two of us, we were able to gather and hunt enough for food to keep us alive, but only barely.

We avoided towns, not willing to risk running into other people or the dead.

Today, we'd been walking all day and it was clear that both of us were ready for a break.

"We need to find water and higher ground," Edward said, interrupting the hours of silence.

"Right," I said, looking around us for some sign of fresh water. I saw that to our left there was a knoll with trees that only grew in damp ground.

"Over there," I pointed, thanking Luke for at least teaching me a few things.

I strode ahead of Edward, looking for the water source that fed the trees. It was a small stream, but it would be enough to restock our water bottles.

Pulling my bottle out of my bag, I knelt by the stream and filled it.

"Give me yours," I said, reaching out for Edward's bottle.

Chucking it to me, I filled his before standing up.

It was getting dark and we had no safe place to sleep.

Looking around us, Edward walked towards a cluster of large red wood trees that formed a canopy above us.

Walking over to the largest one, he reached up and grabbed a hold of one of its branches. Bracing his left foot on the trunk, he pulled himself up onto the largest branch. When it held his weight, he pulled himself up higher.

"Jasper, come on up," he said, looking down at me.

Slinging my shotgun over my shoulder, I climbed the tree and settled on a branch next to him.

The branches were interlaced, allowing us to stretch out without much possibility of falling off.

"We can stay here the night," Edward said, rolling up his jacket to use as a pillow.

"I'll take first watch," I said and he nodded.

At dawn, I decided that it would be a good time to hunt. I grabbed my crossbow and quietly climbed down the tree, trying not to wake Edward.

Usually, I wouldn't leave him while he was sleeping, but everything was quiet and we'd been high enough up the tree for the dead to not be able to reach us.

I'd dreamt of my family last night. They'd been on my mind ever since Garrett had been killed. Garrett had been a lot like Dad. He was hard and ruthless. But different from my father, Garrett had depended on me. He'd seen me as an essential part of his new world plan. I wasn't useless in his eyes.

_Well, fuck my family. I didn't need them. I wasn't weak. _

I saw a partridge and crept closer to it, barely making a sound. With a single shot, the partridge dropped dead and I thought, _There, fuck you. I can hunt. _Then, I saw a walker a short distance away and I hunted and killed it. _There I can kill when I need to, assholes. _

I was back to the redwood trees before Edward even noticed I was gone.

* * *

For months, we'd survived by constantly moving, never staying in one spot for more than a night. The only constants were killing the dead and hunger. Thinking about food consumed us. Even when we hunted, we couldn't get enough game to actually feel satisfied. The forest seemed to be picked clean of game, either by the dead or other people.

About a month ago, we'd resorted to robbing and stealing from other survivors. We were so desperate that when we found other survivors, we would either sneak into their rest area and steal their food or we would take their food by force. At the beginning I felt guilty, but eventually I started to believe that it was either us or them.

There wasn't much humanity left in either of us anymore.

We walked for another day, only stopping long enough to light a small fire and cook the game that Edward had caught with his traps. The hot food settled pleasantly in my stomach but with it came the lethargy that would often happen after any kind of meal these days.

I found myself dozing off despite my best efforts to stay awake.

"Jasper," Edward grunted. "Wake up, jack off. We can't sleep here,' he said.

I bolted awake and glared at him.

"What's your problem?" I demanded.

"You," he glared, getting up and striding away.

Walking through a field, Edward slashed at the grass with his knife. When an undead stumbled from the woods, Edward didn't hesitate to stab it in the head with his knife. We had both become stronger in the last months of running and fighting. At first, our blades would get stuck in the creatures and we had many close calls because of that. Now, we were killing machines.

In the distance, I saw that he was heading towards a farm house.

"Edward, wait up," I hissed, chasing after him, but he didn't stop.

"Edward," I growled, grabbing his arm. "We don't need to steal from anyone today. We just ate."

"We need a break and there might be a better selection of food," he growled without looking at me.

I followed him silently, knowing that he was right.

It was a big yellow farm house, three stories high with hanging planters all around it. I could almost forget that the world had ended. It was so peaceful with the plants swinging gently in the breeze.

Edward put his finger to his lips as he crept up the steps and headed towards the front door.

He looked at me as he touched the doorknob and I motioned that I was going to check the windows for movement inside and he nodded with a jerk of his head.

We'd done this before. The last place we'd robbed had been a jackpot because of the variety of food that they'd had and they'd been just a bunch of young people who had no fight in them. The sobbing of the young women who were part of the group as we stole their food still echoed in my head some nights. Edward, however, was unfazed by it. Even more than me, he'd lost his ability to feel compassion for others. I don't even know whether he saw them as human anymore. I would never tell him this, but he reminded me a bit of James.

I looked through the first window which looked like the living room, but it was empty. So, I crept towards the next window in the back of the house, but froze before I reached it because I could hear noise coming from inside. "Tsst" I hissed and Edward froze mid twist of the door knob. He walked towards me carefully, his back pressed against the wall. I pointed towards the window and dropped to my knees and crawled to just below the window. Edward did the same. Very slowly, Edward looked over the window sill and into the room. His eyebrow rose at what he saw inside.

Slowly, I peeked into the window too.

Inside were two women, one older and one younger, cutting up vegetables and cooking over a gas stove. One woman was humming as she stirred something in a frying pan and the young woman was smiling as she cut up vegetables. They looked like a family. I hadn't seen a family looking so carefree in a long time.

I looked at Edward with wide eyes, questioning him about what we should do.

He looked at me and counted two off on his fingers and then gave me a questioning look.

Right. We needed to see if there were any more in there. So, we waited and watched.

The young one looked like she was about our age. She had short black hair and a slim build.

Dressed in a flower print summer dress, she took up the humming from her mother as she chopped. It was surreal. It was like she didn't even know that the world had fallen apart around her.

I looked at the woman to her left and thought that she was probably the girl's mother. She had the same dark hair and petite size as her daughter.

My eyes kept coming back to the girl, though. She seemed so happy. I wanted to feel that too, but I couldn't. I didn't think I ever felt the kind of happiness she was exuding.

The world had changed, I had changed, but I couldn't stop myself from looking at her with longing.

I was brought out of my thoughts when Edward elbowed me.

With a motion, he crept backwards towards the front of the house.

"What do we do?" I mouthed at him.

With a shrug, Edward knocked on the front door.


	6. The Illusion of Home

**Chapter 6: The Illusion of Home**

**EDWARD**

For a moment, there was no response, just silence from the other side of the door. But then I heard light footsteps as someone approached.

Once whoever it was reached the door, they remained silent.

"Anyone in there?" I asked in a calm, non-threatening voice.

After another moment of silence, a high pitched voice responded, "Who are you?"

"Alice," someone hissed. "No…"

"But they're alive, Mom," I heard her whisper.

"We won't hurt you," I said in as gentle a voice as I could make. I would do anything to get into that house and have some of the food that they were making. We hadn't had anything fresh since the destruction of Garrett's camp.

"Please," I asked, sweetly. "We're awfully tired, Miss."

After a few seconds, the door opened hesitantly.

The two women stood in front of me, a look of fear in the mother's eyes and timidness in the girl's.

If I looked anything like Jasper did right now, I probably looked only one step up from a wild animal. We were filthy with long tangled hair, wearing clothes that were practically in tatters. I'm sure I was even worse because my shirt was spattered with my blood from the wound in my shoulder and arm.

I motioned for Jasper to join me at the door, so they could see us both.

When he reached the door, the mother's eyes flickered from left to right, looking the both of us over with suspicion. The girl, however, stared at us with a look of excitement.

"How old are you?" she asked with wide eyes.

It was the last thing that I expected to come from her mouth.

Jasper raised an eyebrow, but spoke first. "I'm sixteen. What about you?"

I looked at him curiously, but he didn't take his eyes off the girl.

"Fifteen," she said with a grin.

The mother stepped forward, putting herself between Jasper and the girl named Alice.

"Who are you?" she asked, suspiciously.

"I'm Edward and my friend there is Jasper," I said, jerking my chin in Jasper's direction. "We've been on the road for a long time, ma'am," I said. "Would it be okay for us to come in and take a rest for a short while?"

She looked at me hesitantly, so I was preparing to push our way into the house. However, the daughter beat me to it.

"Of course, you can come in. We're just making some supper. Do you want some? We have enough."

Without waiting for the mother to respond, I stepped inside with Jasper following behind me.

"What's for dinner?" I asked, looking around the room curiously.

* * *

The meal was delicious. Stir fried chicken and vegetables. It had been a very long time since we'd had a home cooked meal that wasn't cooked over an open fire. Jasper and I shoveled it into our mouths as if it would be taken away from us at any moment.

"Are you guys all alone?" the girl, Alice, asked.

"Yep," I said, not looking up from my meal.

It didn't hurt anymore to say it. Nothing really hurt anymore.

"Both of our families are gone. We were with a camp, but they're all gone too," Jasper said.

My hand clenched around the fork, anger filling me at how easily Jasper talked about our personal business.

"Alice, don't ask such personal questions," the mother said.

I looked up at her and saw that she was staring at my clenched hand. It made me realize that she saw me as a danger and maybe she was right.

I slowly relaxed my fist and gave her a tense grin, causing her to look away.

It was surreal to be in a clean, orderly environment again. Everything shone with a pristine starkness that made me feel like if I touched anything I would taint it. The contrast of my dirt smudged skin against the white linoleum table, just highlighted my feeling that I didn't belong here.

As if hearing my thoughts, Alice spoke. "Do you guys want to get cleaned up? We have hot water and you both look about my dad's size, so we can give you clean clothes."

She smiled at both of us, open and friendly, but her gaze lingered on Jasper.

I looked at Jasper and saw the quizzical look on his face. It was the mesmerized look of someone trying to solve a puzzle.

_Weak_, I thought. _She's just a dead girl waiting to happen._

"That would be great," I said standing up.

"Follow me," she said, traipsing ahead of me up the stairs.

* * *

Wiping the steam off the mirror, I looked at myself.

I was barely recognizable. My hair had grown to chin length and was a knotted mess. My face was a lot thinner than it used to be and I had a scar that travelled from my hairline and cut through my right eyebrow. _Courtesy of James_, I thought darkly.

But it was my eyes that had changed the most. Even I could see that the life had left them. My green eyes that my mother had always said twinkled were now empty and hard.

With a comb, I yanked at my gnarled hair until I was able to smooth it backwards. I knew that despite my effort, it was going to return to its wild state, but it felt good to be orderly at least for a bit.

Once I was finished, I picked up the clothes that Alice had given me—a pair of worn jeans, a grey t-shirt, and a forest green plaid shirt.

Pressing them to my face, I inhaled the clean scent that came from drying them on a clothes line.

They looked like they would be too big for me, so I was surprised when they fit me. I'd grown since the world fell apart. I was now as tall as my father, who was a little over six feet. Not only was I taller, but my shoulders had broadened. I wasn't a scrawny little kid anymore.

Looking at myself one last time in the mirror, I realized how much I looked like my father. Sure, I had my mother's eyes and bronze hair, but everything else about me was Dad.

At the thought, I took a deep breath and walked out of the bathroom.

I refused to think about the past. That world was gone.

Walking down the stairs, I heard talking in the living room.

"We've been alone for months, ma'am. But we're good hunters and we've learned how to protect ourselves from the dead," Jasper said.

"We haven't seen very many of those monsters, but my husband was able to get rid of the ones that found us," the woman responded.

"Where is he, ma'am?" he asked.

"He's sick," Alice said, sadly. "He can't get out of bed anymore."

I walked into the room quickly.

"Was he bit?" I asked, staring at the girl intently, but it was the mother that answered me.

"No. He's got pneumonia. He gets it all the time, but he's taken all the medicine we had kept for emergencies. Now, he's just getting worse."

I nodded and then looked at Jasper.

Garret explained to us that anyone who died from being bitten or from natural causes would turn. If what Alice and her mother said was true, the man could turn at any moment. Untreated pneumonia could kill.

Jasper began to shake his head, his eyes widening in alarm as he took in the look on my face. However, I ignored him and hauled out my knife as I strode out of the room and up the stairs.

"NO!" he shouted, chasing after me.

I went to the room at the end of the hall because it was the only one whose door was shut. Without hesitating, I threw it open and walked inside.

A man was lying in bed, propped up against some pillows. His skin was gray, but he was very much alive and was pointing a shot gun at my chest.

* * *

**JASPER**

I jumped to my feet and chased after Edward. He couldn't do it. We couldn't destroy this happy family.

Thankfully, when I reached the room at the end of the hall, Edward was frozen with his hands in the air.

"Daddy," Alice cried, weaving around me in order to get into the room.

The fear in Alice's voice bothered me. It pulled at me in a way that was almost painful. I didn't understand the feelings that she dredged up in me. I'd just met her, but it felt like something had awoken inside me, something that I'd never even known was there. My father would have mocked me, saying that I was weak for feeling anything for a fragile girl I'd just met. And I guess he was right, but I couldn't help it.

The minute I met Alice and her mother, I could picture myself staying with them, helping to protect their home and enjoying life with a family. However, as Edward strode out of the room and up the stairs, I realized that Edward could very well ruin that possibility before it even had a chance of happening. He'd become too hard and I didn't know whether he'd ever be able to come back from that dark place.

Over the last few months of being on the run with him, I regretted how I'd treated him while we lived at the camp. I'd been too hard on him. It was just that he was so different from the other survivors that I'd met. When James had taunted him about his sister, I saw real emotion from Edward. It was the raw emotion of someone who had lost someone precious to him. I had been around so many heartless cruel people in my life that I decided that I wanted to help save at least one of the good guys. I thought that with the right guidance, I could help him become a survivor that I'd had to become through heartache and despair. I thought I could teach him how to protect himself from both the dead and survivors.

But I was wrong. Instead, I'd help create someone cold and hard. And I didn't know whether he could come back from it.

"Edward, stop," I shouted, grabbing his shoulder, but the minute I did I saw that the man lying in bed was holding a shot gun.

"Now the two of you put your weapons on the ground," the man wheezed.

Slowly, Edward lowered his knife and dropped it on the ground and I pulled my gun from the back of my pants and placed it on the ground next to his knife.

"Come into the room so that I can see the both of you," he said, causing Edward to move forward so I could walk into the room.

I could tell that the man in the bed had once been a burly type before he'd wasted away from the illness. Alice didn't look much like him, besides her dark blue eyes. However, I imagined that before the end of the world and the sickness, this man had been similar in personality to his daughter. The laugh lines around his mouth and the crow's feet around his eyes seemed to indicate that he'd laughed a lot in his life. He looked like he had once been a carefree happy man. In the short time that I'd known Alice, I could see that she carried an optimism with her that lighted up the room. That positive spirit didn't come from her mom, so it must have been her dad.

My musings were interrupted by the hoarse voice of the man in front of us.

"Now, who the hell are you? And why the hell are you in my house?"

"Daddy," Alice said, sitting on the edge of his bed. "They're survivors. They've been on the road for months. And Daddy, they're my age."

Her father looked at her fondly before looking back at us with a cold look in his eyes.

"So, you're survivors, huh? Well, that still doesn't explain why you're in my room brandishing weapons."

Before I had the chance to calm things down, Edward broke the silence.

"When people die, even from natural causes, they turn. You're going to turn when you die and you'll kill your family. It would be better if I killed you now," Edward said, as if that made perfect sense.

"What do you mean 'I'm going to turn'?" he asked.

"The dead, do not really die, sir. They come back," I tried to explain.

Everyone in the room went silent at that.

To my chagrin, Edward began speaking again.

"So for the safety of your family, it would make the most sense if we ended it now-"

"Now, wait just a second, you sociopath. You're not going to touch my husband," Alice's mother snapped, jumping in front of Edward and shoving him backwards.

Edward's eyes narrowed and his jaw clenched at that, but I stepped in front of him.

Staring into his eyes, I said, "Edward. He's not the only danger. Why don't you go check and see if there are any dead outside?"

We locked gazes for a moment, the first battle of wills that we'd had since leaving the camp. However, it had been brewing under the surface for months.

Ripping his arm away from me, Edward swiped his knife off the floor and strode out of the room.

Turning back to the family, I said, apologetically, "We haven't been around others for a while."

"I don't want him in our house," the mother said.

"Is it true, young man? Am I going to turn into one of those things?" the father said with a look of horror in his eyes.

"I'm sorry-" I began, but was cut off.

"Jasper! Get down here! Bring your gun!" Edward shouted from the front yard.

Grabbing my gun, I ran, ignoring the cries of confusion from behind me.

Throwing open the front door, I saw that around twenty of the dead were almost on the farmhouse's front steps. They must have followed our scent through the woods.

"Shit," I hissed as I began shooting at them.

Edward had shot almost all of his bolts into the approaching dead, but there were still eleven more.

Running to his side, I emptied my gun into the approaching dead still coming towards us.

Edward was now hand to hand, stabbing the dead in the head and shoving them to the side as others approached.

Together we killed the last of them and collapsed to the ground blood spattered and gasping for breath.

"Oh, dear god…" I heard a gasp from behind us.

Turning, I saw that the family had come out of the house and were taking in the scene in front of them in horror.

Edward walked towards the house and up the front steps.

Alice's father offered his hand to Edward. For a moment, Edward didn't take it. He just looked at the father's extended hand like he didn't know what to do with it. Finally, he clasped the man's hand and briefly shook it.

"Thank you, son. We would have been overrun if you boys hadn't been here. I'd like to offer you a place to stay tonight. We have a guest room that you can use. I think we even have a blow up mattress that one of you can use," he said.

Edward grunted in response and walked past the family and into the house.

With a sigh, I stepped forward.

"Thank you sir," I said with a smile. "We really appreciate it. As I said before, we haven't been around people or any kind of civilized society for a while."

"I understand, son," the man said, standing up only to be helped into the house by his wife and daughter.

I watched him stagger inside, a sinking feeling forming in the pit of my stomach. Edward was right; we needed to keep an eye on him. He wasn't long for this world.

* * *

That night, as I lay on the air mattress, I found that I was having a hard time falling asleep. You'd think having the luxury of a warm bed would have made me sleep like a baby, but I just couldn't seem to relax.

Every little sound seemed overly loud to me, so it was easy enough to hear the whispered conversation in the next room.

"They're like feral children… I don't feel safe with them in my home… especially the wild one. He's pretty enough with his bronze hair and green eyes, but he's a sociopath that might kill us all in our sleep," the mother said in hushed tones in the next room.

"Now, Madeline…" the father said, but then the conversation became too quiet for me to hear.

After a few minutes, I heard a chuckle come from the bed.

"Feral…" Edward said, followed by a laugh.

"What else would you call us?" I responded.

Edward didn't respond, but just let out a quiet chuckle as he rolled over in bed.

* * *

**EDWARD**

Surprisingly, the father Brian let us stay at their house for over a week. It was nice to have home cooked meals and hot water even though I had to suffer through the mistrustful stares Madeline kept shooting at me.

I half wondered why Brian was allowing us to stay when his wife wanted nothing to do with us.

_Maybe he knows that he'll need someone to take him out when he kicks the bucket and Alice and Madeline are too weak to do it…_

"That's probably it…" I said to myself, not realizing that I'd spoken out loud.

"What?" Alice asked from where she was sitting at the dining room table playing cards with Jasper.

"Nothing… Nothing at all…" I said, looking down at the book I'd been reading. That's one thing I'd missed. I used to read constantly, but it was nearly impossible when you needed to be constantly on guard.

Jasper and Alice were laughing together which annoyed me.

"Jasper, it's your turn for dead duty," I said, interrupting their fun.

Every morning and afternoon Jasper and I would go out and pick off any undead that had wandered into the area.

Strangely, I felt more at peace out there with the dead than in here. Living in a home with a family who had the time to play cards and cook meals seemed less real to me than the dead that wandered the forests.

Jasper, on the other hand, seemed to be fitting back into civilized society quite easily, which bugged the shit out of me.

"Shit, Edward. I don't have to go at this very minute," he growled.

"Language!" Madeline snapped and I snorted when I saw that Jasper looked chagrined.

"The dead wait for no man, my friend," I said. "But don't worry about it. You keep playing your little game. I'll take your shift."

With an exaggerated stretch, I stood up and grabbed my crossbow.

"Alright, alright, I'm going," Jasper sighed, grabbing his gun and knife.

Flopping back down on the couch, I laid back and shut my eyes.

* * *

As days led to weeks and then months, the desire to leave was getting stronger. I was not cut out for domesticity. Maybe at one time I was, but not anymore.

Whenever I looked around the clean house and well-tended gardens, I'd think about how quickly it would all be gone. It was only a matter of time.

I went through the motions of taking care of the gardens and farm animals, spending most of my time outside because I couldn't handle being in the house for very long. Strangely, while Jasper was fitting in more with the family, I was more useful. Without Brian being able to work, the bulk of the maintenance that went along with taking care of the farm fell to me. I took care of the cows and chickens and weeded the garden alongside Madeline. She never got over her distrust of me, but tolerated me because I was useful. It was good enough for me. I didn't want to like any of them. They were just fodder for the dead.

I felt sorry for Jasper because I knew that it would break him when they died. I had a feeling by the hushed conversations that I'd heard between him and Alice that Jasper had not had a lot of kindness in his life.

Jasper tried to spend time with me and become friends, but I couldn't bridge that gap. It was as if something had broken in me.

Jasper and I still did dead duty every day. There was never a day that there weren't dead to kill, but it was never more than we could handle. It made me uneasy, so I practiced more with my crossbow and knife during my free time.

Jasper taught Alice and Madeline the rudiments of the crossbow and gun, but it was clear that neither of them would be any good. They didn't have the strength to handle a weapon. The kickback of the crossbow nearly knocked Alice to the ground and she would never be strong enough to fight hand to hand.

I tried to be patient and go through the motions of fitting into their family life, hoping that eventually it would just happen. However, I could feel an anxiousness bubbling under the surface. It was telling me not to let my guard down, don't get attached.

It was a few months later when everything hit a boiling point for me.

While on dead duty, I walked around the side of the house and was shocked to find Jasper and Alice kissing on the porch.

I couldn't explain why, but the sight filled me full of fury.

Without even being conscious of doing it, I'd leaped over the railing of the porch and yanked Jasper away from her.

"What the hell, Edward?!" Jasper gasped in shock.

"What the fuck are you doing?" I snarled.

"What do you mean?" he demanded, shoving me up against the railing. "What the hell is your problem?"

I was incredulous. In my rage filled mind, I couldn't understand how he could not know why I was angry.

"She's just another dead girl waiting to happen!" I shouted, jabbing a finger at her, almost touching her in the process.

Before my words were even completely out of my mouth, Jasper's fist slammed into my gut.

I doubled over, gasping, when Jasper's knee connected with my face.

"You… will… not speak to her like that," Jasper said in a deadly voice.

I stood up, wiping blood from my nose.

The rage spewed forth from me in a torrent.

"You are a fucking idiot if you think that this world will allow you to keep her! THEY DIE! THEY ALL DIE!" I shouted, my voice cracking and becoming hoarse as my anger flowed out of me.

I was shaking so uncontrollably with emotion that I didn't even try to defend myself when Jasper's fist connected with my face again.

I grabbed a hold of his collar and shook him, my face mere inches from his.

"These people are making you weak! They're dead already, YOU MORON!" I snarled at him.

Jasper reached up and detached my hands from his collar and stepped back from me.

"Stay away from us, Edward," Jasper said in a tightly controlled voice that hinted at his own rage. "Better yet, I think it's time for you to leave. You… are no better than James."

Madeline and Brian had come outside by this time and I looked around at them. Alice was hiding behind Jasper, while Brian had a tight grip on Madeline's arm. All of them were looking at me with fear in their eyes, including Jasper.

I stood up and wiped my hand over my face, as if wiping away the fury that had spewed out of me. I was confused and exhausted by it all. I needed time to process what had just happened, but I didn't have time. I needed to go.

"Okay," I said. "You're right… You're right. I've got to go."

"Now, let's not be hasty," Brian said, raising his hands in a calming gesture.

"No, it's time for me to go, Brian. Jasper can take care of things here. I'm not meant to live like this," I said, stepping around him.

I knew that he was thinking about all the work that would be left with my leaving. That's why he wanted me to stay. I was useful.

As I was packing my backpack with the clothes that I'd been given, I heard light footsteps behind me.

I turned around expecting it to be Alice, but it was Madeline.

"I'll pack you some food, Edward. We have enough to spare," she said as she headed into the kitchen.

I nodded and followed her.

Once I was stocked with food and packed, I walked out of the house.

I froze on the top step in shock because Jasper, Alice, Brian, and Madeline were waiting for me.

"Well, take care all of you," I said with a tight grin.

It was harder than I thought, walking away.

Jasper approached me and for a moment he just stared at me with an unreadable look on his face. I couldn't tell whether he wanted to hit me again or ask me to stay. But to my surprise, neither one happened. He pulled me into a one arm hang.

"Take care of yourself, Edward. I hope that you find some kind of peace," he said quietly.

I stepped away in confusion and simply nodded.

After a few words from each of them, I strode away and didn't look back.

* * *

**A:N/ Hi everyone. Thank you for adding me to your favourites. I hope you are enjoying my story as much as I am writing it. I've had a lot of great conversations with people through reviews this week. I'd love to talk with more of you. What do you think about Jasper's reaction to Edward at the end of the chapter? Do you think Jasper was being unfair by asking him to leave?**


	7. Crossing Paths

**Chapter 7: Crossing Paths**

**BELLA**

I was alone. That's all there was to it. The world had ended and I was the last one alive. It had been so long since I'd seen another living being that I'd started talking to myself just to fill the void. I didn't know whether it was months or even years since I'd been alone, but I wasn't sure I'd be able to take it much longer. What was the point of living if all there was to do was survive day to day, trying to avoid the monsters?

The monsters. They were everywhere. At first, I found myself watching them from the window, hoping that just one of them would be alive. Then, one day I saw my one real friend, Angela, staggering down the street with blood dripping from her chin and I stopped watching.

I first realized that something was terribly wrong about six months ago when I was at school. Forks High was a small school, so rumours spread quickly. No sooner would something happen, then through text messages and whispered conversations in the halls it was known by everyone. I knew better than most people about the rumour mill because as the newest student, the rumours were often about me.

Sitting in English class, the murmurings of something strange happening began early one Monday morning.

"Do you know Jessica?" a petite blond that I thought was named Lauren whispered to another girl in the seat in front of me.

The other girl Emma sighed loudly and said, "How could anyone not know the biggest slut in the school?"

Lauren giggled which annoyed the crap out of me, so I tried to tune out their conversation. However, snippets of their talk still got through.

"… got really sick…"

"… hospital… gone crazy…"

"… trying to bite people?"

I perked up at that because it was such a strange thing to say.

"Yeah, they tried to pin her down, but before they could get control of her, she got in a couple of good bites."

"God, that's messed up," Emma gasped. "Do you think she'll be back to school? I don't think I want to be around someone like that. Do you think she has rabies?"

"Maybe she's got some kind of venereal disease," Lauren snickered, but then the conversation was over as class started.

After that, I tried to focus on class. I'd read Wuthering Heights before and it was one of my favorites, but I just couldn't get into the class discussion. I kept picturing Jessica biting and snarling a feverish gleam in her eyes.

When I got home from school that night, I found Charlie in the kitchen with Billy and a couple of other cops. There was tenseness in the room that set every nerve in my body on high alert.

They were leaning over the kitchen table, staring at what seemed to be a map.

Charlie was pointing at different places on the map as the men around him nodded.

"We'll set up road blocks here and here," Charlie said, indicating two different places. "We need to set up quarantine zones while we're waiting for someone from the CDC to get here. They told me that they'd send someone as soon as they could, but that there were a lot of other towns that were worse off than us."

"What else should we do? If we don't get a handle on it today, then we probably aren't going to," Billy asked.

There was a tense exhale by the rest of them and a moment of silence as his words sunk in.

"We need to go into lockdown. All public places should be closed—schools, restaurants, anything where it can get out of control," Charlie said, breaking the silence.

Craig, one of the cops, leaned back and crossed his arms, a frown marring his face. "The hospital is going to be a problem. What do we do with sick people if the hospital is where all of the infected people are coming from?"

I stepped further into the kitchen, not wanting to seem like I was eavesdropping.

At the sound of my footfalls, all of the men's heads snapped in my direction and I was shocked to see that their hands went to their holsters. I stumbled back, terrified by the look in their eyes. But then Charlie's eyes cleared and he stepped towards me with an attempt at a soothing look on his face.

"Hey, Bells," he said, "How was your day?"

He tried to fake a smile, but it came out strained. He must have seen that the smile that he was using to calm me was actually making me more nervous because as soon as it appeared it was gone.

"The boys and I are just getting some work done here," he explained, gesturing towards the kitchen table "Bells, I want you to stay home for the next few days. I'm going to put out a message tonight saying that all schools are closed until further notice and that people need to stay in their houses," he said, none of his usual gruff self in his voice. He was speaking in a clipped official sounding voice, but his appearance was anything but the professional persona he usually gave off. The only way I could explain it was that he looked haggard. His eyes had dark circles under them and his skin was pale. His salt and pepper hair was sticking in all directions as if he hadn't had time to even brush it. He looked like he had aged ten years in just one day.

"What's going on Dad?" I asked as panic started to worm its way into me.

He stepped to my side and put his arm around my shoulder, squeezing it gently.

"We're not really sure, Bells. There's some kind of sickness spreading through town that is making people violent. We need to keep people away from each other so it doesn't infect more people. That's why I want you to stay safely inside," he said with a kiss to my temple.

I inhaled deeply at his gentle touch. Charlie didn't show affection often, but when he did, he made me feel safe.

"Everything will be all right, Bells. We're doing everything we can," he said, stepping away from me, but then taking me by the shoulders. "But you need to promise to stay indoors, okay?"

I nodded but then thought of something.

"But Dad we need groceries, especially if we're going to be stuck in doors for a while," I said.

Charlie shook his head, a terrified look appearing on his face.

"No. I'll get groceries on the way home tonight," he said quickly. "Don't leave this house."

I nodded silently.

I was very afraid now. All the silly rumours flying around school seemed so much more real because Charlie looked scared.

"Okay, Bells. I need to get back to planning with the guys. Why don't you go and relax and we can have supper later," he said, turning away from me before he even had a response.

I hurried up to my room and shut the door firmly. Throwing myself onto my bed, I pulled out my iPod and the dog eared copy of the book I was reading. I wanted to forget that this day had ever happened and the easiest way to do that was to immerse myself in my familiar modes of escape.

About an hour later Charlie stopped by my room.

"Bells, I'm going to the station now. Promise you'll stay inside?" he asked, coming to stand at the foot of my bed where I laid with my book propped up against my knees.

I put the book down and got up from the bed.

"I promise, Dad. Be careful, okay?" I asked, feeling hollow.

"I promise, Bells. I love you, you know," he said, putting his arm around my shoulder and pulling me to his chest.

I love you too, Dad," I said, pressing my face into his chest for comfort.

And that was the last time I saw him.

That night I made supper expecting him to walk through the door and tell me that everything was under control and that it had all been an overreaction. However, by 8:00 I knew that he wasn't coming. I was tempted to call the station, but decided against it. If he was really so busy that he didn't notice that he'd missed supper, I didn't want to distract him.

To fill the time, I turned on the TV and flipped through channels.

It was a bad decision. Every channel was filled with talk of this killer disease that turned people into raving monsters. I stopped on one channel that focused on the Pacific Northwest. News reporters, looking less than their best, sat at the anchor desk with tired red-rimmed eyes and tense faces explaining how there had been numerous reports that this disease was turning people into cannibals.

I flipped past that channel not believing such a crazy thing. Then, my breath left my chest in a gust when I saw footage that someone had taken on their cellphone.

Whoever held the cellphone was hiding in an alley and directing their phone towards what was happening on the street. The person must have been shaking because every few seconds the video would blur before solidifying back on the chaos in the street.

People were screaming and running everywhere. I saw people fall and others trample over them as if they hadn't felt them underfoot. Then as if it was magic, the crowd parted and I saw what looked like a group of people hunched over something that was writhing on the ground.

The group shoved and pushed at each other trying to reach whatever was hidden under them all the while groaning. The sound sent a shiver down my spine as it seemed to do to the amateur videographer.

Then, as if sensing that they were being watched, one and then two of the people's heads shot up and looked in the cameraman's direction.

My first thought was that they were wearing Halloween costumes. Their skin looked pasty, with a bluish cast to it. It almost looked like wet paper towel in the way it sagged on their faces. The one closest to the camera looked like he had red open sores on every part of his skin that was exposed. All of that could have been faked, but the eyes were something different. The cameraman seemed to zoom in one the one closest and I found myself staring deeply into the monster's milky sunken eyes. Yes, he could have been wearing contacts, but I knew deep down that he wasn't.

The man slowly stood up from where he'd been crouched and turned his body towards the alleyway. The man was absentmindedly chewing at something wet and shiny red that dangled from his mouth as he stared in the direction of the owner of the cellphone. My stomach lurched when I realized that it looked a lot like raw meat. I looked past the man and tried to see what the others were huddled over and with a sharp indrawn breath I realized that it looked like they were tearing apart a person.

Just before the video cut off, the cameraman burst from the alleyway and broke into a run leaving the carnage behind. With his phone hanging limply from his hand as he ran by, I could see through the blurry image that the monsters were everywhere. They were snagging passersby on the street and throwing them to the ground. They were crawling along the pavement, searching for blood. They were everywhere.

I turned off the TV at that point. I felt like my mind was slipping, falling into a nightmare world filled with real-life monsters.

I shook my head, deciding that it was just a lot of hype that the news stations were using for ratings. Charlie always told me that a lot of news was just propaganda. These days special effects were pretty realistic, I told myself.

I got up off the couch and put the supper away, wrapping Charlie's plate in tinfoil so he could eat it when he got home that night.

Even though I knew that I wasn't going to school tomorrow, I still went through the same routine as I would on a school night. I did my homework, took a shower and settled into bed with my book. However, even the familiar routine didn't stop the feeling of fear from gnawing at my stomach.

I got up finally and picked up my cell phone, dialing the number for the station. I knew that if I could just hear Charlie's voice then I would feel better. He would tell me that I didn't have anything to worry about and that he was just finishing stuff up and would be home soon.

I waited for the call to pick up, but was greeted instead with a busy signal. I felt the fear come back, but this time it was almost overwhelming.

I called the station again, and again, and again, but it was busy all night. Finally, I gave up and crawled into bed, pulling the covers over my head.

It was close to dawn when I heard a scream from across the street.

The high pitched shriek was like an electric current that shot through me, tearing me from a restless sleep.

At first, I thought it was part of a nightmare, so I just lay in the dark breathing and trying to calm myself. But then I heard it again, a breathless scream coming from the Henderson's home. I slid out of bed and crept on my hands and knees towards the window. There was barely any light coming through it because it was a new moon. We lived at the end of a street, so there were no street lights to blare down on us. Besides the motion activated lights, there were no lights to bother my sleep beyond the moon. I usually loved the fact that we were safe from the blaring lights, but tonight I cursed it.

I inched my way up along the wall, so that I could peak over the window sill. However, I couldn't see anything in the dark.

But I stared in the direction of the noise, nonetheless. I was hyperaware in the darkness of every sound coming from that direction.

The Henderson's weren't a large family. Mr. Henderson worked on a freight ship, so he was gone for months at a time. That left only Simon and his mother. Simon was thirteen and had been the bane of my existence since about the age of ten when he got a crush on me. He would follow me around like a puppy dog whenever I was outside and after one awkward moment I had to always remember to close my curtains when I was in my room. One night as I was getting ready for bed, I looked out my window and saw Simon perched in his window watching me as he ate a bag of chips.

My mind snapped back into focus when I heard a quiet sound coming from what sounded like the side of Simon's house. It sounded almost like a breathy moan which had a rasp to it that sent a chill down my spine.

I felt a whimper forming in my throat because I was desperate for some kind of light. I couldn't stand hearing something like that but not being able to see it.

Then, almost as if something heard me, the motion detector light flicked on.

I jerked my head down from the window, hoping that whatever caused the lights to turn on hadn't seen me.

Then, inch by careful inch, I raised my head to look outside.

At first, I didn't see anything. The Hendersons were one of those families that collected junk in their front yard—old tires, rusted tools. So, what looked like a pile of rags didn't stand out. Then, with a quiet moan, the pile of rags moved.

I held my breath and watched as Simon's head rose up off the ground, his head lolling left and right searching for something. He barely looked like the kid that had bugged me for the last couple of years. His face was spattered with what I could only guess was blood and his eyes had the same milky look as the monsters had on TV.

Not finding what he was looking for, Simon began to drag himself along the ground, heading towards the nearest house on his side of the street.

Then, I heard another sound which came from the side of the house where I'd thought that I'd heard the scream earlier.

My head whipped towards the sound and I gulped back a whimper when I saw that it was Mrs. Henderson. She staggered forward, stumbling with arms outstretched. It looked like something had bitten into the side of her face, tearing the flesh away.

I dropped to the floor, unable to see more.

I realized that everything that I'd seen on the news was real.

I grabbed my cell phone and dialed the station with shaking fingers.

With a sigh of relief, it began to ring. But then it just kept on ringing and no one ever picked up.

With a sob, I pressed end.

I tried to squash the feeling that my father was dead, but it was hovering in the background.

I started to cry softly, muffling it with a blanket that I'd dragged down off the bed.

I was alone and no one was coming to help me.

Then, Renee came to my mind. She was never much of a comfort to me, being less of a parent to me than I was to her. But at least I would know that I wasn't alone. So, I dialed her number.

An automated voice said that all circuits were busy.

I dropped the phone on the floor with a clatter and crawled up into my bed, burrowing my head under my pillows and sobbed until I fell asleep.

After that day, the monsters began to fill the street in increasing numbers.

I scoured the house for food, but was too afraid to eat anything that would require cooking. And then I had no other choice because the power stopped working.

I stayed away from the windows as much as possible because it didn't take much to catch the monsters' attention. Something as simple as a plastic bag tumbling down the street in the wind could stir the monsters. Their moaning would become almost deafening as they searched for the source of the disturbance.

So, I stayed in the house eating everything I could get my hands on and then I starved until I knew that if I didn't go out and find food I'd die.

I decided that I would try the neighbours next door. The Monroes were rarely home, both of them commuting for work a few towns over which meant they came home late every night and left early every morning.

So, I grabbed my backpack and securely fastened it across my chest before cautiously walking to the backdoor. I planned to creep across our backyards and in through their sliding glass door.

I didn't worry that much that the doors would be locked. As is the quirk of many small towns, people in Forks didn't often lock their doors. It drove Charlie crazy because it didn't seem to matter how many times he lectured the town's residents, they continued to leave their doors unlocked. Coming from Phoenix, I thought they were all insane, but now I was extremely grateful.

So, with one final deep breath, I slowly slid the sliding glass door open and took one step outside, trying to look everywhere at once. When I didn't see any movement, I stepped gingerly off the deck and peeked around the side of the house.

They were still there, milling around the streets, bumping against each other and moaning, but none of them had ventured behind our houses yet.

I waited till I felt that none of them were looking in my direction and slipped quietly across the small stretch of yard between our houses. I was amazed when I made it to the house and didn't hear the tell-tale moaning become louder as they noticed my escape. Charlie had always said that I was stealthy and would have made a great spy if I didn't have ridiculously clumsy moments at the most inopportune times. When I turned off my mind and freed it from worry and stress, I was surefooted. It was only when my thoughts got in the way that I found myself tripping and dropping things.

Now, I called upon every part of myself to compartmentalize my fear, allowing myself to move quietly.

Creeping up onto the deck, I quickly stepped to the sliding glass door and slid it open. The air inside smelled stale, meaning that none of the windows had been left open. It made me think that Mr. and Mrs. Monroe had never made it home. I stepped into the kitchen quietly and froze, waiting to see if I heard any movement. It was at that moment that I thought about how I should have brought some kind of weapon.

I'd never even thought about what I'd do if one of the things found me. The monsters looked like they were already dead, so I wasn't sure if they even could be killed.

When there was no sound of monsters in the house, I heaved a deep sigh of relief and started to look through cabinets and drawers for food that didn't need to be cooked.

There wasn't much. It seemed like the Monroe's diet comprised of raw vegetables which had rotted in the fridge and frozen dinners.

I scavenged what I could and stuffed it in my backpack. I was just about finished packing when I heard a sound behind me.

I whipped around just in time to come face to face with a monster. It was a man that wasn't recognizable through his mangled features. I screamed and stumbled backwards into the cabinet as one of his hands swiped at me.

I spun around the island in the kitchen, putting it between me and the monster.

With surprising speed, he lunged right and then left as I tried to dodge by him. On one of my attempts to get around him, he was able to grab a hold of my arm in a painful grip.

I scrabbled at the island, trying to find a grip on anything that would stop my feet from sliding across the linoleum floor. But my hands grabbed at nothing stable, knocking things over and onto the ground in the process. I grabbed a hold of something and clenched it in a tight grip, but the sharp pain it caused made me yelp and let go. I realized that I'd grabbed a hold of the blade of a knife from where I'd knocked over the butcher's block and scattered knives across the counter.

The monster was now moaning more loudly as the smell of my blood stirred its hunger and its grip on me became tighter.

I reached out again and was able to grab a hold of another knife just as the monster yanked me away from the island.

I spun around in its arms and tried to stab it with the knife in my hands. The monster was a lot taller than me and I only succeeded in hitting it in the chest. My arm reverberated with the hit and I found that my weapon was stuck. I yanked at it with a sob, yanking it back and forth trying to pull it free. All the while, the monster's hands were working their way up my arms to my neck where they squeezed as they tried to pull me towards its mouth. Just as I felt like I was about to lose consciousness, the knife came free from its chest. With one last jab, I rammed the knife upwards, trying to stop it from biting down on me. With a shock, the monster suddenly went limp and we both collapsed to the floor in a heap. The air came rushing back into my lungs and I felt light headed. With thready gasps of breath I pushed my way out from under the monster.

When I was finally free, I sat still stunned by the fall and by the near death experience. Everything was deathly quiet besides my wheezing gasps.

I stared at the monster intently, waiting for it to lurch back to life, but it never did. Therefore, I hesitantly reached for it and with a great deal of effort rolled it over on its back.

With surprise, I realized that I'd shoved my knife up into its upturned chin.

Still afraid that it would grab at me at any moment, I reached for the knife I'd buried in its neck.

With amazing ease, it slid out of its neck and into my hand.

It was not in fact a knife, but an ice pick. It was a deadly looking thing like a large sharpened screw driver.

I didn't look at its face, afraid that I would lose it if I recognized who the monster used to be.

Burying my fear, I clinically examined where I'd stabbed it.

Thankfully, it didn't bleed. It looked more like the fetal pig that I'd cut into in Biology class. Angela always said that I was cold blooded when it came to dissection. The first time I cut into the pig, Angela had to run to the bathroom and throw up.

The stab wound that seemed to have killed it had gone up through its soft pallet and probably into its brain.

I then pulled open the monsters shirt and looked at where the ice pick had punctured his chest. It hadn't gotten stuck in one of his ribs. It had actually found its mark and hit somewhere close to or in his heart.

I could only guess from this that the monsters only died if I hit their brains.

With a nod of understanding, I pushed myself to my feet

Only then did I allow myself to look at the monsters face. I looked at it for only a second, recognizing Mr. Monroe and then stepped away.

I needed to be strong and remember that the monsters weren't people anymore and they weren't un-killable.

* * *

I continued that way for months, wandering from house to house looking for food, but also searching for any other human being. I didn't think it could be possible that I was the only one to survive the end of the world. I was only sixteen.

For the most part, I was able to evade the dead. As long as you kept your sound to a minimum and stayed downwind from the dead, you could creep from building to building with little fuss.

On the days that it was just too much to be surrounded by the dead, I would wander the woods. In the thickly lush forest, I could almost forget about what had happened to the world.

Even with the crisp fall air, I would sometimes swim in the river. It was freezing, but it made me feel alive. My reddened skin, the pins and needles as the blood returned to the surface of my skin, the throbbing ache of frost bite all reminded me of the fact that I was alive.

The birds still twittered, the wind still rushed through the trees, the world lived on even though people didn't.

I would often visit a wide open glade that was a few miles from my home. I loved how great waves would ripple through the tall grass pushed by gusts of wind. It was beautiful.

I liked to lay down in it because I felt comforted by how it cushioned and surrounded me.

There were times in the woods when it felt like someone was watching me. Now, in the past that would have frightened me, but now that presence was comforting. For a brief moment, I felt like I wasn't the only human being left alive. I knew it was only a figment of my imagination, but it was a great figment.

Eventually, I always had to return to town when hunger and the need to find another living being became too much for me to ignore.

It was on one of those trips into town that something unusual happened. I heard music, loud music with a heavy base.

The sound could only mean one thing. Someone was alive out there.

I hurried in the direction it was coming from. All I had to do was follow the hoard because they were on the lookout for the same thing that I was.

I quickly realized that the music was coming from town square.

I made the decision at that point not to follow the hoard because whoever it was wanted to attract the monsters probably to kill them and I didn't want to become one of the dead.

As I got closer, I thought the sound was probably coming from the park, so I silently crept to the building closest to it which I'd cleared a few weeks ago and went through the back and up the stairs to the roof.

I reached the roof but I had to slam my shoulder against the door to get it to open on its rusty hinges. It opened with a shriek of metal which made me cringe in fear. In any other circumstance that noise would have attracted the monsters for miles, but thankfully the music drowned out the harsh sound.

Instead of walking to the edge of the building, I dropped to my stomach and slid across the roof to avoid being seen. I didn't want to the person or people to see me before I had the chance to see them.

There were a couple hundred dead in the square. Their moans sounded almost excited as they converged on the radio which was propped up on a bunch of boxes that someone had left near the ornamental fountain in the center of the square. Mrs. Wellington had donated it to the town in her will. It didn't suit the rustic town, but Charlie couldn't deny her dying wish. So, there it sat looking gaudy amongst the large fir and maple trees.

The monsters were climbing over each other as they tried to reach the radio, knocking it this way and that.

I couldn't understand the purpose of placing the radio there until I saw movement from the top of town hall.

It was so strange to see another human being that at first he didn't even look real.

I stared at him in fascination. He was tall, but young, probably close to my age.

I'd forgotten what a living person looked like. Everything about him glowed with life. He had the oddest color of brown hair that shone with life as the sun danced off strands of red and gold giving it a bronze tint. That same hint of bronze showed along his angular jaw from the dusting of stubble growing there. His cheeks were flushed with cold and his breath misted the air as he breathed heavily. All signs of a body teaming with life.

I thought about standing up and getting his attention. The building I was lying on wasn't far away. I'd easily be able to get his attention, but something told me not to.

I decided just to watch.

Heavy eyebrows sat above squinted brilliant green eyes which were scrutinizing the hoard surrounding the radio. He looked at it from every angle and then took a deep breath. He crouched down and pulled what looked like an arrow from a backpack, but the tip of it was wrapped in some kind of white material. He then grabbed what looked like a crossbow and slid the arrow into the notch of the gun. Once the arrow was securely placed, he reached back into the backpack and pulled out a lighter. Leaning forward, he lit the lighter and touched it to the arrowhead causing it to leap into flame.

Then, picking up the cross bow he raised it to his shoulder and took aim.

After a couple of deep breaths, he squeezed the trigger.

The bolt shot down towards the mass of dead and struck the box closest to the center.

With a _whoosh_, the box burst into flame, quickly spreading to the others. Then, with another _whoosh_ the whole area erupted in flames consuming the monsters within it.

It was an eerie sight.

The dead seemed to not notice the fire even as it destroyed them. They stumbled around confused as their clothes caught flame and their hair crackled.

I was so hypnotized by the disturbing sight that I hadn't noticed the man leave the roof.

I was startled to see him at the edge of the hoard, not running or hiding, just standing there waiting for them to notice him.

A whimper escaped my throat. He was the first living person I'd seen since the world ended and now he was going to die before my eyes and there was nothing I could do about it.

As he stepped into the hoard, he raised an axe and began swinging at the monsters closest to him. It was not graceful or even well executed, but there was a certain beauty to the man's madness.

He struck out at the monsters, slashing at them with wide downward arcs. With every thunk of his blade, every spark from his axe striking the pavement, I heard the man say over the moans of the monsters, "I'm a killer…"

"I'm a killer, I'm a killer, I'm a killer," he continued his voice gaining intensity as what I could only guess was pent-up rage started to escape.

By this point, many of the monsters had turned towards him, but they were no match for him as he whirled his blades around him in slashes and stabs.

He grunted with each blow, his voice getting progressively louder until he was shouting hoarsely "I'M A KILLER! I'M A KILLER! I'M A KILLER!"

His battle fury was fierce as he let his anger drive cold steel through body after body.

Anyone else who saw this man for the first time would probably think that he was just another kind of monster with the way he cut down corpse after corpse as they approached him, all the while screaming out his rage. He snarled and spit and hissed as he slashed at them, solely focused on the kill.

But I didn't see him that way. What I saw was someone who was truly alive.

Eventually his anger dissipated and I saw him losing strength. With one last slash at a monster that was within arms-reach, he stumbled back and away from the remains of the hoard. He'd taken out a good number of them, but the fire was attracting more by the second.

His arms hung limply at his sides, his axe dragging on the ground as he stumbled down an alleyway. I hurried to the other side of the building following his route, wanting to see where he would go.

When he reached the other side of the building, I realized that he had no clue what building was safe. He stared frantically from left to right looking for a safe place, but the monsters were close behind him.

He'd set up this trap for the monsters, but had not thought about planning an escape route.

I'd cleared the three buildings directly ahead of him, but only one had an exit out the back that he could use.

I agonized for a moment, terrified for some reason to let him know I was here. Finally, though, I couldn't hold off. I stood up on the roof, standing in clear view if he looked up.

"Tssst," I hissed at him.

When he didn't look up, I stepped closer to the edge.

"TSSST!" I hissed more loudly.

At the sound, the man's head snapped up towards me. His bright green eyes widened in shock as he took me in.

I pointed at the lawyer's office. It was the best place for him because I'd locked all the windows which were also barred and only left the front door unlocked. I'd also stashed some food in the kitchen in case I wasn't able to get back to my house when I was out scavenging the town. I'd set up places like it all over.

His head snapped towards the building I pointed to and then he looked back at me with a suspicious look on his face.

The look made me smile. Here I was showing him a place where he could hide as over a hundred monsters were heading in his direction and he looked suspicious?

He must have thought the same thing at that moment because he looked away and bolted towards the building.

Once he reached the steps and was moments from safety, he looked back at me with an unreadable expression on his face.

I felt strangely anxious as our eyes held each other's. I wanted nothing more than to go to him, to be with another living person again, but I was also desperately afraid.

This mix of contradictory feelings gave me the irrational need to run, run away from the only other living person I'd seen in close to a year.

I held his gaze for a few seconds longer, my emotions waging a war inside me. But fear won and with one final look I waved goodbye and bolted.

I ran until I reached the safety of my home and didn't leave for three days.


	8. Misconceptions

**MISCONCEPTIONS**

**EDWARD**

Stumbling into the building, I slammed the door behind me and latched the deadbolt. I'd barely had a chance to lock it when my strength gave out. My arms were dead weight, not breaking my fall as I slumped to the ground. Even though none of the dead had gotten their hands on me, I still felt like I'd been beaten to a pulp. I couldn't even catch my breath because my ribs ached with every breath.

Sweat dripped from my forehead, stinging my eyes and splattering my jeans with darks spots of wetness as I hung my head in exhaustion. However, my body was still alive with adrenaline. I could still feel how my axe had cleaved through the dead. I'd felt powerful and in control. It was the only way that I felt normal these days.

Pulling off my shirt, I mopped my face, not even having the energy to check for any dead that might be lurking in the building. I resented that I was putting all my trust in a stranger, but I'd squandered all of my energy on killing the dead that I'd trapped in the square.

Coherent thoughts were lost in a dizzying mix of adrenaline and exhaustion. The only thought that came through clearly was that I'd seen _her_ again.

Just like before, I thought she was a figment of my imagination when I looked up and saw her standing on the roof, pointing at me.

After leaving the farm, I hadn't seen another living person for months which had made me believe that I was the only one left alive in this part of the country. However, I didn't actively look for other survivors. I didn't belong with them.

I wandered on automatic through the countryside, looking for things to kill. I hunted for food, I hunted the dead. I became a killer, nothing more.

I thought a lot about what Jasper had said to me when he kicked me off the farm. He'd been right. I was not even human anymore. The Edward that I'd been before the end of the world was gone and in its place was just a predator, hunting any moving thing. I couldn't be anything else anymore. It was too late. Jasper had been right to make me leave.

I travelled on instinct similar to the dead. I allowed my surroundings to guide where I went. If I heard a sound, I'd follow it. If it was something I could kill, I killed it. If it was nothing, I'd move on to the next sound.

I had no idea how long I continued that way, but it could have been only a month or several.

Then, one day, things changed.

I saw her appear as if out of nowhere.

_I followed the quiet noise that was coming from in front of me along the overgrown path. If it was one of the dead, then I would hunt it and kill it. I needed the practice as I hadn't seen very many for a few days and didn't want to get rusty._

_But as I got closer, I realized that I couldn't hear the familiar groaning and shambling noise of the dead. However, the sound was too loud for a bird. My stomach growled at the possibility of it being a deer or bear. It had been weeks since I'd had any meat._

_So, I crept on silent feet closer to the sound._

_Finally, I was close enough that I could tell that it was coming from directly in front of me. Therefore, I crouched behind a tree with my crossbow notched._

_A gasp almost escaped me in surprise when I saw a small hand reach out from behind an old tree followed by the owner of the hand, a teenage girl. She stepped her way onto the path and looked around curiously. _

_She seemed almost alien to me because she was so out of place._

_I found myself cataloguing her appearance which was something I did with everything these days. I focused on details, details of everything except the dead. _

_She had dark brown hair that fell around her face and shoulders in wispy tendrils that clung to her face and neck in the humidity. She was very pale in contrast to her dark hair, giving her a somewhat otherworldly look. Her face was broad at the forehead but tapered down to a pointed chin. Her eyes were large, almost too large for her face. But what shocked me the most was the look in her eyes, when they passed over me. Her brown eyes were so dark that they practically looked black from this distance until the light hit them and then they took on a warm glow as she looked around in curiosity. No fear, just curiosity._

_I felt a chill go down my spine as I stared at her. _

_It was a sensation that didn't make sense to me, so I quietly crept closer, needing to understand who or what she was. _

_I watched as she reached out and let the sun touch the pale skin of her arm and then with one more step tilted up her head and let the sunlight shine brilliantly down upon her upturned face. _

_I was fascinated. She couldn't be real. This had to be a figment of my imagination. It was such an odd sight to see in the middle of a forest where the dead walked. She seemed oblivious to her danger._

_It took her eyes a while to adjust. Closing them, she covered her eyes with her hands to try to block the sun. Then, like a little child, she slowly uncovered them by first peeking through her fingers and then removing them altogether. _

_Once she could see, she followed the overgrown path into an open clearing. The grass up to her waist was a beige color, a sharp contrast to her dark blue t-shirt. _

_In the middle of the field, she sat down and laid back to look up at the clear sky. _

_I couldn't stop myself from following her. I just couldn't understand how she could be so carefree._

_I watched her through the tall grass as she stared up at the sky as long as she could before she seemed to drift to sleep. _

_I felt a wave of sadness at the sight. I realized at that moment there must have been something wrong with her. Only a person who wasn't all right in the head could be that relaxed in the open. _

_She was another dead girl in the making. She had no survival instinct._

_I sat there for a while, just watching. I should have left because staying in one place for too long was stupid. However, I didn't move. I just sat there almost hypnotized by her peacefulness. _

_Suddenly, I was surprised to see her eyes fly open and jerk to a sitting position. I thought at first that she'd felt my presence and I tensed in preparation to run, but then I heard a sound elsewhere in the clearing. It sounded far, but when I peeked over the grass just as she was doing, I saw one of the dead had joined us in the clearing. _

_I was surprised that she'd heard it. I'd been honing my hunting skills for almost a year now and was quite attuned to the dead, but I hadn't heard it enter the clearing. _

_Faster than I would have expected, she rolled to her knees and crouched down in the grass so that she wouldn't be seen as the dead thing turned in her direction. Then, crawling on her hands and knees, she scurried into the trees. _

_I turned to follow her, but as I entered the woods I saw that a few dead had approached me without my noticing. I shook my head in frustration because my fascination with the girl had made me let my guard down. Not smart. Not smart at all._

_By the time I'd finished killing them, the girl was nowhere to be found._

_At that point, I convinced myself that she was a figment of my imagination because even if she wasn't, I had no time for someone like her. _

I shook myself out of the memory and thought about my encounter with her only a few minutes ago. Just as I was about to be killed by a hundred approaching dead, she reappeared on a roof, showing me the only route to safety.

I'd been frozen at first, convinced that I was losing my mind. However, then she smiled at me and it was so shocking that I was snapped out of my fog. I bolted towards the building she'd pointed out to me, but then stood at the door, looking back at her.

She stood confidently on the roof, looking down at me, like she wasn't even the slightest bit afraid.

She looked the same as she did in the forest with her long dark brown hair, big brown eyes and pale face, but the rest of her was what caught my attention. Her hair was pulled back in a loose messy braid that kept her hair out of her face, but now around her neck was a blue bandanna tied like you'd see bank robbers wear during a heist. Strangely, she was wearing an oversized pale blue policeman's uniform shirt that was frayed and torn. For pants, she wore a pair of torn khakis with a tool belt slung low on her hips with sheaths for different size knives surrounding it. She also had a shotgun slung over one shoulder. Finishing it off, she was wearing a pair of army boots. For a small person, she looked kind of fierce which was surprising.

I thought about speaking out to her, but had no idea what to say.

And then with a wave goodbye, she was gone again. I expected for her to show up at the house so I forced myself to remain conscious, but after a half hour led to an hour and then two hours, I pulled myself to my feet and headed into one of the offices that thankfully had a couch.

Collapsing onto it, I was asleep before I had time to blink.

* * *

Gnawing hunger woke me.

I had no idea how long I'd slept, but from the empty pit in my stomach I expected that it had been quite a while.

Feeling like an eighty year old, I stood up carefully, my joints cracking as I moved. I hobbled from room to room searching the building for anything that was useful. The remnants of the former inhabitants were like eerie artifacts in a museum—a half full glass of water on one of the lawyer's desks, a suit jacket tossed over the back of a chair. File folders open on the desk, papers fluttering in the draft that could be felt through the building.

When I found a small kitchenette in the back of the building, I was shocked to find that there was quite a selection of food stored there. Beef jerky, juice boxes, dried fruit strips, a box of crackers, a can of brown beans, and a Kit Kat bar were stacked on the counter.

The girl had clearly left this stash.

I tsk'd in disdain.

Didn't she know there were gangs of survivors roaming the countryside only too happy to steal and rob everyone they could? Jasper and I would have had a field day in this town a couple of months ago.

That made me pause.

Why wasn't I considering doing that again?

If it was only this girl, then she would be easy to steal from. She couldn't last in this world. She was just prolonging the inevitable. If she had a stash like this that she kept here, then she probably had more stashed somewhere else. Since she probably wouldn't be around that much longer, it was important for me to scope out her secret stashes before another survivor came and staked a claim.

_Survival of the fittest_, I thought grimly.

* * *

It was a shock when she found me instead of the other way around.

I'd been searching for her and her hideout for several days, wandering through quiet neighbourhoods that seemed to have less dead than most other towns that I'd been in.

As I searched for her, I started to notice a pattern. Some of the houses had pieces of blue electrical tape on the doors and in these houses I never found any dead. It was as if someone was methodically clearing them out.

I'd just exited one of these houses when I was startled by a voice behind me.

"You're brave, but not very smart."

I whipped around at the sound with a grunt of surprise, my hand automatically going to the knife at my belt.

Standing only a few feet away from me, she stared at me with an intense look of concentration. She looked exactly the same as the last time I saw her—same hairstyle, clothes, even all the weapons.

But now that I was closer, I saw how truly small she was, probably only about five foot four, a good foot shorter than me.

She was small, but she didn't look fragile. She was slender but clearly physically fit as only someone who led an active life could be.

Again, my brain fell into cataloguing details—a smudge of soot on her pale left cheek, a spattering of freckles across the bridge of her nose and cheekbones, an uneven cupid's bow to her upper lip, feathered eyebrows with one raised in speculation.

Then, her words sunk in.

"What the fuck is that supposed to mean?" I snarled, irritated that this small woman would say that I was dumb.

She looked at me in confusion, like she couldn't understand why I was offended.

"You're pretty good at clearing, but you don't seem to plan for contingencies," she said.

"Contingencies?" I asked, now the confused one.

"You cleared the monsters, but didn't make an escape route. You didn't even prepare a safe house," she said as if explaining something to a child.

"What do you know about it?" I said, defensively. "You've probably just been hiding out all this time."

She stood up straight, her spine stiff.

"All the buildings with the blue tape, I've cleared myself. You know, like the lawyers office that I led you to, so you wouldn't get your ass killed?"

My pride prickled at her words. I was only too aware that she saved my ass and I didn't like it.

"You're a liar. You didn't clear all those houses… You couldn't have. You're probably only a hundred pounds soaking wet," I said with a derisive laugh.

"Killing the monsters doesn't require a lot of strength. It just takes a knowledge of anatomy," she said matter-of-factly, but with a frown on her face.

I snorted at that.

"And a shit load of luck on your part. A knowledge of anatomy isn't worth a damn if you find yourself in the middle of a herd."

"Finding yourself in a herd only happens when you don't plan for contingencies," she responded.

"That's really stupid. You can't always predict what's going to happen…" I said, annoyed.

"I'm not stupid. You're stupid. All brawn, no brain," she said, her cheeks flushing with anger.

I opened my mouth for a counter-attack, but before I could say anything she turned to leave.

"Well, this conversation has been enlightening, but I have stuff to do," she said with a huff.

"Like what? Are you going back to your hidey-hole?" I asked, not wanting her to get the last word.

"I gotta get back to work. Buildings with blue marks have been cleared. If you have nothing better to do, you can help clear some others," she said in an official sounding tone as she straightened her policeman's shirt with a logo for the Forks police department on it.

"Do you wear that stuff all the time?" I asked, gesturing to her strange clothes.

I was as confused by my question as she was. What did it matter what she was wearing even if it was a little odd?

"These? These are my work clothes. I'm not off the clock right now…"

I just stared at her, starting to get the impression that she was indeed crazy.

"What do you do when you're off duty?" I asked, curious as to what this crazy person would answer.

"None of your business!" she snapped and bolted.

I started laughing hard but I didn't know why. I hadn't laughed in such a long time that it felt strange. By the time my laughing fit had died to a chuckle, I realized that I was alone again and that I hadn't even found out her name or where her hideout was.

With a groan of frustration, I ran in the direction she'd gone.

**A:N/ Sorry this chapter is so short. It's been really busy at work.**

**What do you think of Bella? Do you think that she's unstable? **


	9. Crystal Clarity

**A:N/ Hi folks. I hope you're all still enjoying my story and will continue to let me know what you think about Bella and Edward's journey. A couple of people asked me in reviews a few things that I thought I'd answer before getting into the chapter.**

**1. How old are Bella and Edward? They are both sixteen right now. Edward turned sixteen while he was at the farm.**

**2. Will Jasper and Alice show up again in the story? I can't tell you at this point without giving too much away. **

**Okay, on with the story… **

**BELLA**

I'd been following him for a few days before I got up the courage to meet him. He was fascinating to watch as he wandered through my town. He had such confidence in his physical strength and skill, but many times I saw near misses where he could have wandered into a situation that he couldn't get out of.

I felt pride when I saw that he recognized the signs I'd left on the buildings I'd cleared. However, my pride quickly turned to anger when he started to eat up all my stores.

_Didn't he know that we needed to ration? How had this guy ever survived?_

But I couldn't let him distract me from my job, so I only followed him during my off hours.

After saving him from his attempt at annihilating all the dead in my town, I realized that there was a good chance that he was crazy. That was part of the reason that I'd run away. I wasn't sure whether being around a crazy person was better or worse than being alone. It was just my luck that the only other living person that I'd found had a few screws loose.

Charlie always said that being idle made him stir crazy. Everybody needed a job to do, he'd told me.

Grandma Swan said that idle hands were the devil's workshop.

That's why I took up clearing. I couldn't be idle.

_Do you think this guy just needs a job too, Dad?_ I asked Charlie in my mind.

_Why don't you ask him, Bells?_ he responded, like he did some times.

So, I'd decided to approach him.

The minute I spoke to him, I realized that I didn't sound right. I hadn't spoken to another person in so long that the things that were coming out of my mouth were "off." Everything I said to him seemed to make him angry.

I tried to explain to him that he needed to be more careful, but instead we began to argue.

The boy was arrogant and mean, so after a bit of useless arguing I ran away again. His arrogance stirred up too many emotions in me. Frustration, anger, sadness were not feelings I allowed myself to have any more.

But even after our confrontation, I still found myself some nights when I couldn't sleep going to the law office where he'd set up a home. I'd watch him through the crack in the window coverings that he'd tacked up. It was almost soothing to watch him carry out the same routine every night. He'd start by latching the front door, then he would check the back door and every window to make sure that they were still locked. Next, he'd check to see that all the windows he'd covered were still blacked out. I'd have to hide at this point because I couldn't let him see that we were only separated by a blanket and a pane of glass. After that, he would wedge the back of a chair under the doorknob to the room he was sleeping in.

Only then did he sit down to eat something. As he ate, he would always stare at the white blank wall on the opposite side of the room. There were plenty of things for him to read in the room, but he never did. He would just stare.

_What is he thinking about, Dad? _I asked Charlie.

_The past, Bells. What else? _Charlie responded.

After that, he would meticulously clean his shotgun and then load it.

He always checked one or two times before going to sleep to make sure that his shotgun was loaded even though he'd only loaded it ten minutes ago. He couldn't have forgotten that quickly.

_Why does he always check twice, Dad? _

_I don't know, Bells. It looks like he's had it hard, _Charlie murmured.

He'd sometimes lie awake, shining his flashlight on the ceiling making shadow puppets.

_He's wasting his batteries, _I mused.

_Do you remember when we used to do that, Bells? _Charlie asked, softly.

_Yeah, I do Dad, _I thought, staring at the dancing shadows on the ceiling longingly.

It was at these moments when I would want to knock on the window and ask the boy if I could join him.

He didn't seem like an asshole or a jerk at these moments. He seemed lonely like me.

_Why don't you do it, Bells? _Charlie asked.

_He's mean, Dad_, I explained.

_No, he's not. He's just broken_, Charlie explained.

But I didn't approach him. I just watched him from afar.

He had a handsome face, all sharp angles—sharp jaw, high cheekbones, long straight nose.

I liked how his tangled copper hair shone a burnished red in the faint beam of his flashlight at night. I liked how his green eyes would flash when the light touched them.

But I made sure that I always headed home when he got himself ready to go to sleep.

Charlie didn't like the fact that I even thought that the boy was handsome. He practically had a conniption fit every time I would admire his looks.

_It's a crime to be a peeping Tom, Bells. Go home_, Charlie admonished.

However, when I saw the boy face to face again, our encounter wasn't any better than the first time.

I'd decided on that day to clear the local grocery store. The automatic glass doors were closed, so I had to use a crowbar to pry them open enough for me to get in. It was hard work, but finally I was able to wedge it open enough to get inside.

The grocery store was trashed. I'd known that it would be, but I needed to clear it anyway and look for any supplies that hadn't been taken.

_You should have cleared it earlier_, Charlie lectured.

_I know, Dad_, I thought with a sigh.

I grabbed a can from one of the shelves and rolled it down the aisle, waiting for the dead to come searching for the sound. It skidded down the tile floor with a tinny scratchy sound.

I waited in silence for the familiar groaning and wasn't disappointed. From the darkness at the back of the store, I heard scraping and breathy moans. So, I pulled out my ice pick and waited. I wouldn't use my gun. I used in sparingly because it only attracted more of the dead.

When the monster finally emerged from the dark, I smiled. It was missing its legs, so this was going to be easy. Its milky white dead eyes found me quickly and it began dragging itself towards me more quickly, groans leaving its lips in drawn out breaths.

I casually walked up to it, not even hesitating as I rolled it over and slammed my blade down through its eye socket.

It looked vaguely familiar, but I shut that part of my brain off.

_Don't think of them as people, Bells. They're monsters, nothing more, _Charlie said.

While I was yanking my blade out of its head, I heard a noise from behind me.

Whipping my head towards the front of the store, I saw the bronze haired boy watching me.

With a gasp of surprise, I began to stand up.

The boy opened his mouth to say something, but then his eyes widened in alarm. Before I could process what that look meant, I was jerked off my feet by something grabbing my leg.

I slammed to my knees and fell forward onto my stomach. I was so jarred by the impact that my blade flew out of my hands and slid down the aisle away from me.

I flipped over onto my back, reaching for the bowie knife on my tool belt, but it was jammed behind my left hip and I couldn't get the right angle to pull it out.

I hissed in frustration, kicking at the dead thing that was trying to bite through my army boot.

Suddenly, my ice pick skidded towards me, its handle hitting my leg. Without even thinking about where it came from, I flew into action. Grabbing the handle with two hands, I rolled to my knees and slammed the knife down into its right eye. And like that it was over.

"Well, well, well," I heard the boy's voice from nearby. "I guess you really can kill them."

I looked up with a glare at the smirking boy.

"No thanks to you fuck face," I hissed, climbing to my feet.

I chose to ignore the fact that he was the one who threw my knife to me because I wouldn't have needed his help if he hadn't distracted me.

The smirk dropped from his face as I strode past him in order to search the rest of the store.

It was a shame, so much produce turned to mush. Charlie was right. I should have cleared the store first.

I grabbed a shopping cart and started to stack it full of stuff that hadn't been taken during the first wave of the outbreak.

Once I was sure I'd gotten everything I pushed the shopping cart to the front of the store and noticed with chagrin that the boy was still there.

"So, what's your name?" he asked casually as if he hadn't almost gotten me killed.

I huffed, but didn't respond.

"Mine's Edward. Thanks for asking," he said as if I hadn't just ignored him.

_It's only a name, Bells_, Charlie said. _You can tell him that_.

"Bella," I muttered.

"Bella… Bella… Nice name," he said with what I imagined he thought was a charming smile.

Charlie and I weren't buying it.

"Stop following me, weirdo," I said, annoyed by his presence. "I have to clear this quadrant by tomorrow or else I'm behind schedule."

He glared at me, but then a smile spread across his face.

"Wouldn't want that," he said with a barking laugh. "Do you get paid time and a half if you work past your normal 9 to 5?"

_Ignore him, Bells. You're doing good work_, Charlie said, comfortingly.

When I didn't respond, he stepped in front of me.

"You know, you're not a real police officer… right?" he asked. He didn't say it in a mocking voice. He just looked curious.

I stopped and glared at him.

"I have a job and that's what I'm trying to do," I said. "So, I would appreciate it if you would get out of my way."

"Do you need help? I could meet you at your place tomorrow and we could divide up the work," he said in a false friendly voice. He was so transparent.

_Don't tell him where we live_, Charlie warned.

"Thanks, but no thanks. I'm good on my own," I said, turning away from him. "Well, it's been fun, but I have to get going. Things to do."

"I could help you get your supplies back to your place," he said, following me out of the store.

I spun on him, angry now.

"No! Get away from me fuck face!" I yelled at him.

He took a step back from me, his hands raised in front of him in surrender.

"Geesh. Okay, okay, have it your way," he said and then strode away.

I watched him walk away until he turned the corner a block away.

I waited to make sure that he didn't come back and then turned towards the nearest safe house. There was no way that I was going to go home now because he clearly wanted to find out where I lived.

I'd get the supplies stashed and then I would decide what to do next.

* * *

For several days, I didn't see him. He hadn't even gone to his safe house at night time, but I knew that he was still in town.

As I cleared houses, I saw that some had already been done and these houses had gigantic smiley faces on the front door done in magic marker.

_He could be an ally_, Charlie said.

An involuntary smile touched my lips at the sight because it suddenly felt like I wasn't so alone, even if he was a fuck face.

One thing concerned me about his help. He wasn't leaving stashes of supplies in different houses. He was keeping it all in the law office which wasn't smart. If that part of town was overrun, we would be cut off from the supplies.

So, I decided to approach him again.

I crept up behind him one morning as he drew a smiley face on a small bungalo.

"What are you doing?" I said with a smirk as he yelped in surprise.

"Jesus Christ, Bella. Give a guy a little warning," he hissed in anger. "I could have stabbed you."

"You need to be more aware of your surroundings," I said.

"Yeah, yeah," he said, rubbing his hand over his face. "Thank you for your pearls of wisdom."

I smiled.

"To answer your question. I'm clearing. Isn't that what you call it?" he asked with a crooked smile.

My heart sped up at the sight.

_Why did your heart just speed up, Bells?_ Charlie said in a concerned father tone.

"Yes, that's what clearing means, but you shouldn't leave all the supplies in the law office," I said, seriously. "That's not smart."

He scowled at me, but didn't snap.

Instead, he took a deep breath before speaking.

"Well, that's a matter of opinion," he said as he cracked his knuckles.

"According to any military or police strategies, contingency planning means setting up multiple safe houses in case of an ambush," I said, slowly and clearly.

"You're a little off you're rocker. Missing a few from your deck…" he said, one eyebrow raised.

I wanted to smack the look off his face.

"Takes one to know one. It was _completely_ sane to try to take out a horde of monsters in town square hand to hand, right?"

"I survived, didn't I?"

"You're really mean and arrogant, you know. Were you a bully in school?"

"I'm not mean. I'm honest," he said with a scowl.

"There's a difference between being honest and being an ignorant douche," I retorted.

"Shut up, bitch!" he snarled, his friendly façade gone completely.

"Takes one to know one," I said.

"Oh, that's mature…" he said.

"I assume, you're an only child. A brother or sister would have kicked that douchiness out of you…"

When I saw all the color drain from his face, I knew I'd gone too far.

"Edward, I'm sor-" I began, but he cut me off.

"Fuck your clearing, fuck your contingencies, fuck you," he snarled and strode away.

_That was unkind, Bella_, Charlie admonished.

I'd clearly brought up a painful memory from his past. It was clear he'd had a brother or sister and that they were dead.

I teared up at the thought.

_How could I so callously dredge up his past when I couldn't face my own?_

As I watched him walk away for the last time, I decided that I would clear the police station tomorrow.

_It's time, Bells, _Charlie said to me softly.

Once before I'd tried to clear the police station, but when I'd had to kill Billy and Jake, I'd fallen apart and had to leave.

_When I'd first entered the police station, I was able to take down a few of the police officers that I'd known when they were alive because I was able to turn off my memory and just focus on the here and now. _

_Gaining confidence, I ventured further into the police station, feeling like I might be able to clear it without much difficulty._

_But then I turned towards the back of the station where the cells were and saw a sight that broke my heart._

_Billy was almost unrecognisable because of how grey and swollen his features were. But I knew that it was him because he was as familiar to me as my own father._

_A sob escaped my throat as emotions bubbled up inside me. This man had been like a second dad to me. Now he was a bloated corpse dragging himself towards me because of his paralysed legs._

_He's just a monster, baby girl. That's all he is, Charlie whispered sadly in my mind._

_I couldn't look in Billy's eyes when I did it, so I stepped around him and shoved my ice pick into the back of his neck and up into his brain. _

_I'd just taken a deep breath of relief at the fact that I'd been strong enough to give mercy to one of my family when I heard scuffling to my left._

_At first, I almost thought that Jake was okay. He didn't look hurt. Yes, his skin was pale, but the darkness of his brown eyes had only turned slightly milky. _

_As he staggered towards me, he didn't even seem to have the vacant look of the dead. His brow was furrowed with what I thought was a pained expression, like he didn't want to attack me._

_Bells, he's dead. You need to put him down, baby girl! Charlie said with alarm in my mind._

"_Jake," I croaked. "Are you dead?"_

_He didn't respond, but his mouth fell open in a moan, drool pouring from his mouth._

_I bit back a sob and circled behind him quickly as he tried to swing towards me._

_I kicked him behind his knee, causing his leg to buckle, but unlike most of the dead, Jake pulled himself up straight without collapsing. _

_I remembered vividly how he strong he'd always been. He could lift me up like I weighed nothing and swing me around until I was dizzy._

"_Jake, please just let me put you out of your misery," I begged._

_Spinning around him again, I dodged out of his reach._

_I kicked behind one knee and then the other in quick succession which finally brought him to the ground. _

_I shoved against his back with all my might to knock him forward onto his stomach._

_I landed on his back with my knees pressing down on him. I tried to push his head forward so I could shove my blade up into his brain, but he kept raising his head, turning it to the side to try to reach me._

_Whenever he'd turn his head, I couldn't stab him. I saw my Jake's face and just couldn't do it._

_Do it, Bells! It's not Jake! It's the thing that killed Jake. NOW BELLA! Charlie shouted, his voice reverberating in my skull._

_With a shriek of despair, I used one hand to twist his head by his hair and shoved my knife up into his skull._

_I jumped to my feet, but left my knife buried there as I backed away._

_Panting from the onslaught of emotions, I pressed my back up against the wall as far from the body of my friend as possible._

_That was when I heard the growling coming from Charlie's office. I felt a wave of vertigo flush through me as panic rose inside of me. _

_Charlie, Billy, and Jake had all been together when they'd left my house that last morning._

"_No, no, no, no," I sobbed, shoving myself off the wall and running towards the exit._

I should have noticed the cracked glass that spread like a spider web across the front door of the police station, but I'd been in too much of a panic to notice.

* * *

**EDWARD**

_Why hadn't I left weeks ago? _I thought angrily. _My plan was to rob her, not buy into her ridiculous mission._

Every night, I'd gone back to the law office with the conviction that I'd leave the next day.

However, the thought of wandering aimlessly through the countryside killing the dead for no other reason but to let out my rage didn't seem to be appealing anymore.

So, I'd decided to help the little crazy person in exchange for the food that I was slowly accumulating.

After my initial attempt to get her to lead me to her home base, I realized that I didn't need to steal her cache of food.

For some miraculous reason, the people of Forks hadn't cleaned out all the food in their homes when they'd run away from the outbreak, so there was plenty of food to be found as long as you were willing to clear out the houses. And clearing was what I was good at even though Bella would say differently.

Bella intrigued me as well as enraged me. From afar, I had to admit that I admired her. She had a strength and determination that made her a force to be reckoned with. However, the minute she'd open her mouth I'd want to kill her.

I had no idea why she got to me so badly. She was just a girl. Why did I care if she thought I was dumb? I knew I wasn't. I'd always been top of my class. I'd always excelled at sports and music. I shouldn't care what a crazy girl said… but I did.

I'd sometimes follow her when she was working.

She amazed me by how strong she was. I loved to watch her stalk the dead on silent feet and then calmly take them down with a well-aimed jab.

I knew that she'd watch me sometimes too because I could feel her spying on me. So, I'd purposefully hide from her as she searched for me.

It was like a game of cat and mouse in which both of us were the cat and the mouse.

I'd follow her to her home and watch her from a tree outside her window. I could tell that it was her real home because of the way she seemed so relaxed in her environment. I never felt that way in any of the houses that I'd crashed in. I couldn't ever be comfortable sleeping in someone else's bed or eating at someone else's kitchen table.

At times, she'd spend hours reading and listening to her ipod.

_What she was listening to? Was it something lame like Miley Cyrus? _

From the way she'd bang her head as she listened, I doubted it.

Other times she'd go into the forest behind her house.

She was so carefree as she'd stop to catch grasshoppers, climb trees, swim in the frigid water.

At those times, I'd make sure to kill all the dead that tried to approach her, wanting to give her the time to enjoy what I could not.

She wasn't stereotypically beautiful. I compared her to Tanya which was the kind of girl that most guys fawned over. There was no comparison. Bella was intriguing in that her features were separately out of proportion, but together they created a beautiful contradiction.

I wondered whether I was fascinated with her because there were so few people left and I was just lonely. I just wasn't sure.

Then, one day another conversation with Bella put everything into perspective.

We'd argued like we always did when we'd run into each other. At first, it was just name-calling, but then she called me out as an only child and everything inside of me imploded.

For some reason, during my time in Forks, I'd been able to somewhat forget about the trauma of the past year. Yes, I'd had to kill the dead here, but I didn't _feel_ dead anymore. I'd even stopped having the nightmares about Anna attacking me in my sleep every night.

However, Bella ruined all of that and I hated her for it.

It was time for me to move on.

I couldn't stay anywhere near the lunatic girl who thought there was nothing wrong with talking about things she didn't understand.

So, I hurried back to my temporary home and packed my shit.

The next day, I headed out of town early, wanting to put as much space between me and Bella as I could.

I'd just passed by the town square when I heard an odd sound in the distance.

It was nothing like I'd heard before. It was similar to the moaning of the dead, but louder and more powerful.

It was a kind of wailing, a full-on desperate sound of grief. It was a sound too full of devastation to be one of the mindless dead.

I couldn't stop myself from going in search of the sound.

I hadn't gone far before I came upon the source of the sound.

Bella was sitting on the ground in front of the Forks police station. Her legs were drawn up to her chest and she had her face pressed against her knees with her fingers laced over her head.

She didn't move or flinch as a group of dead police men approached her.

She just rocked back and forth whimpering and crying.

Without thinking, I ran towards her, yanking my axe from where I had it bungee corded to my back pack.

"No, no, no," I heard her whimpering as she tried to make herself as small as possible.

I swung my axe taking down an older police man with one downward swipe. Yanking my axe free, I turned towards the next and with a wide arc cut it down.

Soon I was left with only one. An older police officer with salt pepper hair and a mustache was reaching out for Bella, letting out long hungry moans.

I stepped close to him and raised my axe, but was pulled up short by Bella's voice.

"Edward," she whimpered. "Please no."

She looked up at me with eyes full of such pain that it made me take a step back.

"I can't, Edward. Please don't do it," she begged me.

I shoved the dead away from her, knocking it to the ground.

"Bella-" I began, but she cut me off.

"He's my dad, Edward. Please!" she wailed.

Then, she let out another wail of anguish as she stared at the dead that was climbing to its feet again.

Everything became crystal clear in an instant.

Crouching down, I scooped her up in my arms and headed in the direction of her home at a brisk pace. I held her tight against my chest as she buried her face in my neck and sobbed.


	10. Moving On

_**A:N/ Sorry for the wait everyone. It's been a busy couple of weeks at work.**_

**MOVING ON**

**EDWARD**

I carried Bella into her house and up the stairs to her room. From what I'd seen while spying on her, it was the place that she felt the most secure. But once I was there, I suddenly felt awkward.

I tried to put her down on the bed, but she wouldn't let me go. One of her hands was wound tightly in my shirt and the other held on to the back of my neck. Her crying was painful to listen to, but I didn't know what to do to soothe her.

Since, she wouldn't let go of me, I moved to a white rocking chair that was in one corner of the room.

"Oof" I grunted when I sat down because the chair rocked back, causing Bella's head to thump painfully against my chest.

It didn't seem to bother Bella. Instead of flinching away from me, she pulled herself more tightly to me and buried her face in the crook of my neck.

I patted her head awkwardly, not knowing what to do for her.

"Umm...Okay" I mumbled. "Shhhhh, just relax."

I couldn't say it was going to be okay because nothing would be okay ever again, for any of us.

Her father had become one of the dead. There was no comfort for that.

Her crying only stopped when she finally fell asleep.

When her grip loosened on my shirt and her hand relaxed on my neck, I scooted forward on the rocking chair and lifted her up carefully.

Then, I pulled back her purple bedspread and laid her down before slumping to the floor next to the bed.

I was exhausted emotionally from simply witnessing her pain.

She slept fitfully, whimpering the name Charlie over and over again.

_Was one of the dead that I killed her brother? Was he called Charlie?_

Whenever her crying would threaten to wake her, I'd rub her back like I'd done for Anna when she had a nightmare.

It was a long night, but when morning came and Bella woke up she wasn't much better.

Once she'd sat up, her eyes were glazed as she stared blankly at the wall. Her face seemed to have even turned gaunt overnight.

I tried to talk to her, but she didn't even acknowledge me. She simply stared unseeing at the wall, the ceiling, anything but me. While she ignored my presence, her fingers twitched in her lap, tapping out a tune that existed only in her head.

"Bella," I tried again, gently. "It's me, Edward."

I didn't know what I'd expected. It wasn't as if we knew each other. We didn't even like each other. So, there was no way that I would be a comfort to her.

I tried several times to get her to respond, move, blink, but she just kept on staring.

Getting frustrated, I shook her shoulders.

"Come on! Snap out of it, Bella," I demanded.

Her twitching fingers stilled for a second before resuming their silent tapping.

It went on like that for the next couple of days. I spent my nights keeping vigil next to her bed and my days trying to keep her alive.

It was a fight to get her to choke down even the tiniest bit of food or water. I had to resort to plugging her nose and shoving it in her mouth to make her eat anything.

"You can't fucking starve to death! You can't put that on me. You need to stop this shit, Bella!" I shouted at her, but she still fucking ignored me.

She didn't even fight back when I slapped her face, desperately trying to get any reaction out of her.

I spent useless hours pacing her house and when I couldn't handle being in the house with her anymore I would hunt. I thought about going back to the police station and giving Bella's father mercy by putting him down, but Bella had asked me not to. And that was not a decision that anyone should make for another.

So, I hunted for game even though I didn't need the food and killed the dead that were anywhere near Bella's house.

On many occasions, I had desperate thoughts of leaving, of just walking out the door and never turning back. I couldn't bear the thought of someone else I knew dying while I just stood by and did nothing, like I'd done with Garrett. But every time I thought about just taking off, I would get a sharp pain in my chest that wouldn't dissipate until I gave up the idea.

But being around Bella was painful and it was an emotion that I'd thought I'd successfully buried. Her pain reminded me of my own- how much I missed Anna, how much I wished that I could hold her one more time, I missed my parents, but Anna had been like my own baby. I started having flashbacks of my sister as one of the dead and it would nearly cripple me. So, to keep from dwelling too much on my thoughts, I wandered around Bella's house, looking at family photos, knick-knacks, things that made Bella's house a home.

The walls were covered in pictures of Bella at different stages of her life. Often she was with her dad whom she seemed close to. I only found one photo that must have been of her mother. It was an old faded wedding photo of a happy young couple that had a split of Bella's features.

The pictures of a loving family made me long for my own. I didn't want to feel that longing. I'd successfully pushed those thoughts away in the past because they were useless emotions.

So, it shouldn't have been a surprise when on day three the nightmares came back stronger than ever.

The nightmare was always the same. I was sitting on the couch of our family room playing video games on my x-box. Mom wasn't home yet, so I was in charge of watching Anna after school.

As if on cue, Anna called my name from her bedroom upstairs.

I let out a heavy sigh. Every day after school Anna would beg me to play with her. Because I loved her, I suffered through the dreaded fashion shows with her Polly Pocket dolls. Then, ten minutes later, she'd get bored and run off. Then, about ten minutes after that she would run up to me and ask, "Eddie, what do you want to play?"

It was driving me crazy, but I had to hide my frustration. Anna was very attuned to my emotions and would have an absolute meltdown when I showed even a twinge of impatience.

So with a beleaguered feeling, I tramped up the stairs to play fashion show for the umpteenth time.

Anna's door was open a crack, so I pushed it open and stepped inside.

I found her sitting on the floor in front of her doll house, hunched forward.

"Whatcha doin' baby cakes?" I asked, crouching down next to her.

At the sound of my voice, Anna's whole body twisted around to face me in slow motion, her hair fanning out as she turned her head.

Before I had time to process what I was seeing, time sped up as she launched herself at me. I fell backwards as her bloody hands scratched at my neck and her open mouth bit into it.

Just before the darkness took me, I saw over her shoulder the corpses of my parents stumbling towards me, following the scent of my blood.

Even though it was the same dream, when I would bolt awake I was just as scared and destroyed every time. This time was no different. I awoke sobbing and shaking from the devastation of my Anna turning into a monster.

At first, I was disoriented and confused about where I was and then I was startled to find that I wasn't alone.

I felt the warmth of another human being next to me and the feeling of someone gently running their fingers through my hair.

The feeling was foreign to me. I'd gone almost a year without touching another person. Besides Tanya who'd pawed at me, I hadn't been touched or touched anyone with anything but violence.

My family had been affectionate. None of us shied away from hugging each other or giving each other kisses on the cheek when the other needed it.

But this felt wrong. I felt weak, vulnerable. I didn't want Bella's comfort. I didn't need it.

I rolled away from her, shielding my face, even though I knew in the dark she couldn't see the tears trickling down my cheeks.

I angrily swiped the tears away from my face, embarrassed that I couldn't get a hold of myself.

"Ssh, it's OK," Bella whispered, hoarsely. "You can cry. Just let it out, like I did."

I started to laugh at the idea. I couldn't let it out. That was an impossible task and certainly wasn't something I'd do in front of a stranger.

I squeezed my eyes shut and clenched my teeth, trying to force myself to calm down.

Bella rested her hand on my shoulder and squeezed comfortingly. Then, she just left it there, her thumb rubbing back and forth in a soothing gesture.

I wanted to pull away, I needed to pull away, but I didn't.

I started to laugh again at my weakness, but without my meaning to it turned into a sob and then I was crying again. Crying like a little baby.

In the daylight, I would have never accepted this kind of comfort from anyone. But here in the dark, I gave in to it.

Bella's hand returned to my hair and I allowed her to soothe me back to sleep.

* * *

The next day, I couldn't look her in the eye. I'd woken up with her pressed to my back, her face buried in between my shoulder blades and her hand resting on my hip. I pulled away from her angrily, not liking the feelings that swirled inside of me.

I was exhausted and angry, but I kept it inside. I didn't want to cause Bella to fall apart again.

At my abrupt departure, Bella sat up blinking.

I watched her warily for a few seconds, checking to see if she was going to revert to her catatonic state. So, when she stood up and stretched, I sighed in relief. I didn't think that I would have been able to handle her being that way for a moment longer.

"You hungry?" I asked, gruffly, not looking at her.

"Starving," she responded.

I looked over at her startled. For some reason I hadn't thought she would respond. I'd been talking at her for days without any response, so it was weird to have her actually talk back.

"Well, okay then. I brought in some granola bars yesterday. They're pretty good and oatmeal is a breakfast food," I said, walking out into the hall and down the stairs.

Bella followed me to the kitchen, but she was quiet throughout breakfast and the afternoon. It wasn't that she wasn't talking, but her answers were always short and not full of questions or the quick jabs she'd fired at me before. She wasn't telling me how dumb I was every second or how I didn't know how to kill the dead.

However, she was awake, eating, talking and I needed her to stay that way.

Every day I'd noticed that more of the dead were entering the town. I didn't want to say anything, but soon there would be too many for us to stay here.

I started to think seriously about leaving. I would have left already if it hadn't been for Bella.

_Did I want her to go with me? Would she even leave?_

Bella would probably die if I left her. She didn't have the physical strength to go up against a horde of the dead. But Bella wasn't mentally stable, which was dangerous for me. I sort of liked Bella, but it was survival of the fittest and I couldn't let her bring me down.

While I continued to hunt for food and clear houses, Bella went from safe house to safe house, checking the food supplies and writing in a little notebook that she kept next to her at all times. Every day, she organized and re-organized the food all the while scribbling, scribbling, scribbling in that little notebook.

She was obsessed with it. Sometimes when she'd talk to me, I'd see her pat it as it sat on the table next to her as if checking to make sure it was still there.

Finally, I couldn't take the not knowing anymore, so after she fell asleep I stole her little notebook.

I'd expected to find rambling thoughts and ravings of a crazy person, but was astonished to find the exact opposite.

It looked like a notebook that my mother always carried around with her from one of her healthy living groups because in it was a list of essential vitamins and minerals with small notes written by Bella next to them in neat precise hand writing.

_**Vitamin A/beta carotene**: essential for vision, immune function, and great skin health. A deficiency in Vitamin A can lead to blindness and increased viral infection._

_**Possible sources**: sweet potato, carrots, leafy green vegetables, sweet red peppers, melons, dried apricots, butternut squash, tuna_

_Found: dried apricots, butternut squash soup, canned tuna (SAFE HOUSES 2, 6 AND 9)_

I closed the book in shock. She wasn't mentally unstable. She was a genius. She'd used a health food journal to document all the vitamins and minerals that a person needed to be healthy. Then, she'd gone about trying to find food sources that contained them in the different safe houses.

I started to realize that Bella's mission to clear all of the houses in her town had a greater purpose than just to keep her busy. She seemed to have a more far-reaching plan than simply getting rid of the dead. She was getting her town ready for survivors to return.

I hated the fact that I was going to have to tell her that it was never going to happen and that we'd have to leave soon.

With that, I realized that I'd made my decision. I wouldn't leave Bella behind.

* * *

"I can't leave," Bella said, firmly.

"Yes, you can Bella," I said, sitting down on the couch next to her. "No one's coming back. We have to focus on our own survival…"

"They'll all be back eventually and I want the town to be ready for them when they get here," she argued.

"Bella, it's getting worse in town, not better. Maybe someday in the future, like years from now, people will come back to this town. But if we stay here, we won't be alive to meet them," I tried to explain.

She was stubborn, so I knew it was going to take work.

"No…" she snapped.

I scowled at her, but forced the rude words from coming out of my mouth.

"Come with me," I said, yanking her to her feet and up the stairs.

"Where are we going?!" she demanded. "Stop pulling on me!"

She yanked her arm out of my grip, but I grabbed it again and pulled her into her room and towards the window.

"We're going up on the roof," I said, not leaving any room for argument.

"But-" she began, but I shoved her towards the window.

With a growl, she gave in and crawled out the window and up on the roof.

I followed her up and scanned the skyline, looking for the part of town that was the most densely filled with the dead.

I found it in the area closest to the town square and near the police station.

Taking Bella by the shoulders, I turned her in that direction.

"Look at the amount of dead over there, Bella. It's almost triple that it was a few days ago," I said, firmly.

Bella tensed up and tried to turn away, but I held her in place.

I scanned the surrounding area and saw where most of the dead were entering the city. There was a steady stream of them coming in from one of the only access roads into town. I looked farther down that road and saw an even larger number approaching.

I took a hold of Bella's chin and turned her gaze towards the approaching hoard.

A sob escaped her throat and her shoulders hunched.

Then, without another word, she spun away from me and escaped back into the house.

The next day, I gathered the food that had been stored at the individual safe houses and brought it to Bella's.

She didn't fight me on it, but she didn't help. I grumbled about that, but continued on with my work while Bella continued to obsess over her notebook.

There was one last quadrant that Bella and I hadn't checked yet. I knew that I had to check it for food, but I was getting more anxious every day. We were the only things left alive in this town. There weren't even any birds or rats any more that I could see.

At the beginning of the outbreak, there were dogs and cats everywhere scavenging for food.

When Jasper and I broke into houses, pets that had been locked in their homes were almost as dangerous as the dead. After having eaten up every accessible amount of food, they were literally out for blood.

Those that seemed relatively normal, I released into the wild. Jasper thought it would be better to just kill them, but I thought that all living creatures had the right to fight for survival. It was a slim chance that any of them would survive, but any chance was better than none.

Now there were no signs of life other than our own, so I sped up my search of the houses.

Once I'd gathered all of the food at Bella's, I went in search of a vehicle. About a block away, I found a Ford SUV with a full tank of gas and a gas can in the garage.

Nervously getting behind the wheel, I slowly pulled out of the driveway and drove it down the street to her house.

My father had just started to teach me how to drive before all hell broke loose. I'd barely been able to keep the car on the road and now I was going to be responsible for driving us out of this town. I was dreading it, but I couldn't see any other way.

That night as I lay on the mattress that I'd dragged into Bella's room, I told her that we were leaving within a week.

Even though it was dark, I could sense how she shifted in bed and sat up.

"Can't we wait a little longer, Edward…" she asked, sadly.

"We've stayed too long already, Bella," I explained. "I'm worried that it's already going to be almost impossible to get out."

"I can't-" she began, but I interrupted her.

"For God's sake, Bella. We need to go! If we stay, we die," I snapped.

Every push back that she gave me about leaving was frustrating the hell out of me. When I was on my own, I didn't have to reason with anyone else about what was for the best. I'd just do it.

Without another word, Bella slumped back down in her bed and was silent.

Being pissed at Bella made it hard for me to fall asleep.

I thought about going downstairs to the couch. However, since the nightmare incident, I found it hard to fall asleep without the soothing sound of the steady breathing of another person in the room.

Bella never mentioned my break down and I never mentioned hers, but I felt like she felt the same way that I did. She would often stay awake at night and wait for me to come to bed.

Not tired, I turned on my flashlight and shone it at the ceiling.

Even though it had been a nightly ritual for me and Anna, I wasn't very good at making shadow puppets. I could only do the common, bird in flight, bird's head and a wonky rabbit, but it was entertaining to try to make new shapes from shadows.

I heard a rustle of bed covers as Bella slid out of bed and to the floor next to me.

Lying down on the mattress shoulder to shoulder with me, Bella joined me in the making of shadow puppets.

I was amazed at how the twisted shapes that she made with her hands turned into faces, a wolf's head, and even what looked like a dinosaur.

"Charlie, my dad, taught me how to do them," Bella said in a choked voice.

"They're really cool," I said, pretending that I couldn't hear the pain in her voice.

"Anna, my little sister, loved making shadow puppets," I said, hoarsely, acknowledging her pain with my own.

We continued to make shadows on the ceiling in silence until exhaustion took us both.

In the middle of the night, I woke up to Bella wrapped in my arms. For a moment, I was disturbed by how relaxed I felt. I hadn't felt this at ease for a long time. However, I decided in that moment to surrender to it. It was exhausting to try to keep an emotional distance from her, from everything. I didn't want to fight with myself any more.

With that acceptance, I fell back to sleep.

* * *

The next day, I started to pack the SUV with food.

"A little help would be nice…" I growled as I lugged a full case of water to the trunk.

Bella was perched on a stack of tires at the back of the garage.

"I'm watching for the dead. I'm your look out," she said, matter-of-factly.

I looked over at her as she sat hunched over her little notebook.

"The garage door is closed, Bella. I don't need a fucking look-out," I grumbled.

With a huff, she placed her notebook on the bench and went into the house to grab some food.

By the end of the day, it was pretty packed inside the car. The trunk was completely full and even with the backseats folded down, it was clear that we didn't have enough room for everything.

When Bella realized that we wouldn't be able to take it all, she climbed into the back and starting tossing out all the junk food. Bags of potato chips, chocolate bars, even cans of coke, were being thrown out the side door.

"What the fuck, Bella!" I yelled as I grabbed the stuff up off the cement floor.

"It needs to go, Edward," she said, firmly.

"Nuh uh. Get rid of some of your cans of butternut squash soup and trail mix of seeds and nuts. I'm already sick of eating the stuff and we haven't even made it out of Forks. I'm not a fucking squirrel," I snarled.

In response, she pulled out her little notebook and started reading from it.

_"Zinc is required by the body for keeping a healthy immune system. A deficiency in zinc can lead to stunted growth, hair loss, eye and skin lesions,** diarrhea**, **impotence**. Sources of zinc are cashews, almonds, walnuts, peanuts, hazelnuts…"_

"Fuck," I growled, dropping my stash on the ground and storming away in defeat.

I heard a snicker come from the back of the car as I marched into the house, but I chose to ignore it.

That night, both of us were tense. Everything was ready for us to go and we both knew it.

I wanted to leave the next day, but there was one thing that needed to be done first.

"Bella, I need to ask you something," I said, hesitantly.

"What?" she asked out of the darkness.

"We'll be leaving tomorrow or the next day," I said, taking a deep breath. "Before we go… don't you think… that… I should give your father mercy?"

I saw it as mercy. I hated the fact that I'd been such a coward that I hadn't given my own mother and sister the same mercy that I was offering to give Bella's dad. That thought haunted me every day.

I waited as the silence lengthened between us.

"Edward…" she said with a sob.

I climbed up off the floor and got onto the bed next to her.

Pulling her into my arms, I squeezed her tight.

"It needs to be done, Bella. Your father wouldn't want to continue on like he is. We need to put an end to his suffering," I whispered against the crown of her head as she buried her face in my chest.

"You don't have to come. I don't expect you to be there…" I said.

"No…" she began.

I sighed, thinking that she was going to tell me that she couldn't let me do it.

"No," she began again. "I need to be there."

"Bella…" I began. I didn't want her to have to see it.

"It's okay, Edward. It's time. I need to let him go…" she said with a sob.

I pulled her tight against me and rocked her back and forth.

"I'll make it quick. I promise," I whispered.

A light squeeze was her only response, but it was enough.

Laying back on the bed, I pulled Bella down with me, letting her curl herself up in the crook of my arm with her head pillowed on my chest.

And just like that we fell asleep.

* * *

We both woke up at the break of dawn, called by the need to have it done.

Silently we got dressed and left the house.

Bella had put on her uniform again, with all of her many weapons slung around her waist.

I felt more confident about bringing her with me that way. It meant that she was prepared for whatever dead we encountered.

It was a hard getting to the police station. As I'd been worried about, there were more dead crowding the streets and it took a lot of dashing down back alleys and going through cleared buildings to even make it close to the station.

That was when I brought out my secret weapon. One of the houses that I'd cleared had a small stereo which I'd put batteries in. The kid's room didn't have much choice for music, but I chose the loudest.

It worked to get the dead's attention before and I hoped it would again. Then, all that there was left would be to find Charlie.

Leaving Bella on the roof to look for her father, I escaped out of the building and carried the stereo a few streets away from Bella's house, the main access road, and the town square.

Once I'd found a good location, I placed the stereo down and pressed play, cranking the volume to full blast.

Then, I dashed away, keeping my distance from the dead whose attention was now focused on the loud drum beat and shouting on the CD.

With a grim smile at my success, I ran back to the building where I'd left Bella.

When I reached the roof and found her crumpled form, I knew that she'd found him.

Crouching down next to her, I uncovered her face which was hidden by her hands.

"Where is he, Bella?" I asked, gently.

With a shuddering breath, she used me to help her stand and pulled me towards the edge of the roof and pointed towards town hall.

At first I didn't see him because the swarming mass of the dead were all so focused on getting past each other in order to reach the blasting noise.

Then, I saw the familiar flash of blue that matched Bella's shirt.

"There," I pointed at him for acknowledgement from Bella.

Bella didn't speak, but her nod said it all.

"Okay, you stay here while I go down there," I said.

"No, I'm coming…" she said, forcing herself to stand strong.

"Bella, it would be better-" I started.

"No, Edward. He's my dad. I need to be there," she said sharply.

With a sigh, I nodded and led the way down the stairs and out of the building.

The square had emptied out quite quickly, with only a few stragglers left behind. One of which thankfully was Bella's dad.

I kept myself between Bella and her father as we approached, worried that she might decide to run to him.

But Bella stuck close to my side.

"Let me have your ice pick, Bella. I'm going to knock him down and then use the pick at the base of his skull in the back. It'll be quick and he won't see it coming, okay?" I asked.

"Just give me a second, Edward," she said, stepping out in front of me.

With a grunt of alarm, I reached out for her but she shook me off.

I stood that way, tension making me shake, as I prepared to jump forward if her father made a move for her.

"Dad?" she said, maintaining a distance, but stepping in front of her father so that she could see him and he could see her.

"Dad? It's me. It's Bells…" she said with a sob. "I'm sorry, Dad. I wish I could make you better, but I can't…"

Mr. Swan let out a groan and staggered at step towards her, baring his teeth in hunger.

I made to move, but Bella moved first. She took a step back and to the side when her father made a swipe at her.

"Dad, I failed. I can't make the town safe for survivors. I thought I could, but now I see that things won't ever be the same again. So, I have to leave, Dad."

Charlie Swan let out a growl and lurched three steps forward, drool and blood dripping from his mouth as he hungered for his daughter.

"I'll be okay, Dad," she said, uncontrollably sobbing now. "I'm with Edward. He's good, Dad. Like you said…"

I was confused by that. When had she told her father about me? It was clear that he'd been dead long before I got to town.

With a roar, Charlie Swan lunged forward desperately reaching for his daughter.

I jumped forward and grabbed him, kicking him behind the knees and knocking him to the ground.

"Good bye, Dad," Bella said in a voice practically too quiet to hear.

For a moment as Mr. Swan struggled on the ground with me as I tried to force him onto his stomach, I made eye contact with him.

I saw in his features, aspects of Bella underneath the rot and gore. It was a disturbing human connection that I'd tried to ignore when I dealt with the dead.

"I'm really sorry, Mr. Swan. I'm here to give you mercy. It's time for you to be at peace. Bella will be okay with me," I said, before forcing him onto his stomach and with a quick jab stabbed upwards through the base of his skull and into his brain.

And with that, he was gone.

When I climbed to my feet, I was surprised to feel my own face wet with tears.

But instead of dwelling on it, I grabbed a crying Bella and pulled her away from the square and towards her home.


	11. On the Road Again

**A:N/ Sorry for the wait everyone. I've been busy helping out with the annual zombie walk. If you have the chance to join one, it's a lot of fun.**

**On the Road Again**

**BELLA**

Doors clipped open and shut as Edward climbed behind the wheel next to where I sat in the passenger seat.

Fastening his seat belt, he turned the ignition. The growl of the engine carried across the darkness, calling out to the undead. Both of us cringed at the sound but there was no help for it.

We were both nervous about leaving. Not only were we entering the unknown, or at least it was for me, but also Edward didn't know how to drive very well. He'd only just started to learn a month before the apocalypse happened.

With a deep breath, I buckled my seat belt too.

"Okay, I'm ready," I said, looking towards Edward who was breathing deeply, like he was trying to relax himself.

I knew that he felt like everything was resting on his shoulders because he'd been the one to convince me to leave. However, I knew now that leaving had been inevitable. I'd just not realized it until he showed me.

He looked at me out of the corner of his eye and I smiled reassuringly at him. He tried to be so tough all the time, but I knew that he was just as scared as I was.

I hated the thought of him feeling scared. Edward had done so much for me in the last couple of weeks, things that I couldn't ever repay him for. When he gave Charlie mercy only a day ago, I'd cried for hours tucked in Edward's arms until I was completely drained. He never said a word about it afterwards, but he'd been tender with me. Ignoring my bouts of anger and tears when he insisted that we leave the following day. And then cradling me in his arms that night when I crawled onto the air mattress with him.

When Edward pressed down on the gas too hard, the car lurched forward with a roar, forcing me back against my seat from the gravitational force.

"Sorry… I'm sorry… I just need to get familiar with things again," Edward muttered, as he let up on the gas and rolled out onto the drive way.

Luckily, that morning, most of the dead still wandered a few blocks over where Edward had put the stereo. So, after leaving my street, we were able to put some distance from the downtown area before we started encountering the dead again.

As we made our way out of Forks, Edward started to relax behind the wheel. At first it was touch and go as he became comfortable maintining control of the car, but two hours later he was relatively comfortable.

The silence as we drove started to get to me. I didn't like being tense around Edward. He was an important part of my new life now, but I knew nothing about him. We never really talked about anything personal. Our conversations mainly consisted of how to survive.

"Let's play 20 questions," I said, breaking the silence.

Edward heaved a sigh.

"Bella…" But before he could continue, I cut him off.

"We spend 24 hours a day together, but I don't know anything about you besides the fact that Masen is your last name. Don't you think it would be a good idea to learn a little bit more about each other?" I asked, truly interested in his answer.

"Yeah…" he said, not taking his eyes off the road. "I guess you're right."

"Okay. How old are you?" I asked, turning in my seat to look at him.

"I'm sixteen, I think. I've kind of lost track of time," he responded with a shrug.

"You?" he asked, looking at me for a brief second before his eyes snapped back to the road.

"I'm sixteen too. I would have thought you were older. You're so tall," I said, looking him over.

At that, Edward sat up straighter in his seat, stretching himself to his full height.

He was a handsome guy, tall and athletic, not gangly like most guys our age. I guess surviving in an apocalypse made teenager's skip the awkwardness of adolescence.

I held in a laugh at that.

"What was your favorite subject in school?" I asked.

The question seemed to bother him for some reason and at first he didn't say anything.

"Music…" he finally divulged.

"Huh…" I said, not expecting that answer.

"What?" he asked defensively.

"Nothing. I just expected it to be something like Phys. Ed. You look like an athlete."

"Well, I was. I was on the swim team. But I also did well in other things. But my real love was music. Little good it is now…" he muttered.

"What's-" I began, but he interrupted me.

"Nope. Your turn. What was your favorite subject?"

"English. I loved reading, but I also loved science, especially biology."

"Figures…" he murmured.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I demanded, feeling the familiar judgement of people my age.

"Nothing bad. You're just really smart," he said.

I listened for any mocking edge to his voice, but there wasn't any, which made me like him a little more.

"What were you like in school? Were you one of the popular kids?" I asked, already knowing the answer.

Edward had all the makings of one of the popular guys in school that everyone fawned over. His looks would have made him stand out. He had the most piercing pair of green eyes and unique bronze hair that I'd ever seen. Those features paired with the angular planes of his face made him easily the most handsome guy I'd ever met.

"I wasn't super popular, but I didn't have trouble making friends," he said with a faint smile.

His answer only confirmed the fact that he'd been one of the popular kids in school. Only people who were part of the in-crowd were that confident about themselves.

"What about you?" he asked, looking at me curiously.

"I never fit in. Not only was I the Chief of Police's daughter, which made me extremely uncool, but I excelled in science, sucked at sports, and was as plain as dirt. I was the object of a lot of practical jokes."

He snorted at that, a half-grin spreading across his face.

"Well, the last laugh is on them. You're here and they're not. I say, you win."

"That's not funny, Edward. They're dead," I stated, firmly.

"Sorry," he said, a tinge of regret in his voice. "You're right. I just meant that they were assholes, Bella. There's nothing wrong with you besides a little post-apocalypse crazy, which I assume you didn't have a year ago."

I thought about what he said, trying to decide if I should be insulted or not.

"What did your parents do for a living?" I asked.

A scowl spread across his face.

"Pass," he snapped.

"What?" I asked in confusion.

"I pass on the question. What's next?" he said, his hands gripping the steering wheel a little harder.

"Did you have a girlfriend?"

"Pass," he said, his scowl getting deeper.

"You can only pass once. That's the rule," I argued.

"The past doesn't matter. That world is gone," he growled dismissively.

"Okay, so what did you do for the year before you found me?" I asked, annoyed. I knew that he wouldn't want to answer this question, but I didn't like that he was shutting me down again.

I wanted to know more about him, but he always fought me on it, like he was purposefully keeping a distance from me.

"It's none of your business," he snapped. "I'm not playing anymore."

"God, you're such a douchebag!" I snarled, all my warm feelings disappearing.

"Fine. No girlfriend. Dad was a lawyer. Mom was a dental hygienist. And before you ask, Anna was five when she died."

We drove in silence for a while after that.

* * *

While we were near Forks, I was able to show Edward the back roads where I knew there would be less traffic. However, now we were in unfamiliar territory and unfortunately we had begun to enter more populated areas.

The roads were littered with abandoned cars and then with the stray dead that wandered along the road.

Gripping the wheel, Edward sat forward in his seat, his gaze alert and fixed on the wrecks and the dead on the road.

Edward kept his speed steady, not too slow or we ran the risk of a stray monster hooking on to us, but also not too fast because there were so many wrecks on the road we could easily run into one of them.

At one point, the passenger side of our vehicle collided with a corpse. For a moment it was dragged along half caught by the front wheel. But then with a sharp jerk of a tree branch hitting the back of its neck, off came its head in a spray of blood and it was torn away from the vehicle.

The impact of the crash caused the car to fish tail along the road for a moment as Edward frantically tried to regain control of the vehicle.

But finally we made it through the obstacle course and were on the open road again as we turned down a side road.

After putting a few miles between the highway and us, we both heaved a sigh of relief.

When I saw that the road ahead of us was clear, I decided it was time for us to get something to eat, so I unhooked my seat belt and began to crawl into the back seat.

"What the hell?" Edward said, causing me to freeze halfway between the front and the back.

"What?" I said, sliding back into my seat.

But I didn't need for Edward to answer. A few yards ahead of us, I saw an RV parked on the side of the road. It wasn't destroyed or parked haphazardly like the other vehicles we'd seen. And I was even more surprised to find someone was sitting on the top with their legs dangling over the side.

As we got closer, I saw that there was a huge cardboard sign propped up against the side of the vehicle.

BATS, AXES, GUNS, AMMUNITION, BATTERIES, MAPS AVAILABLE.

EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO SURVIVE THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE.

CASH IS WORTH SHIT.

BARTERING ONLY.

FOOD ALWAYS WELCOME.

I took a closer look at the guy on top of the RV. He was a large barrel-chested guy that despite his size looked around twenty years old.

As we drove by, he waved at us, flashing a dimpled smile. It was a shocking sight because he seemed so normal and carefree despite the fact that he was twirling a bat with spikes in it and three of the dead were pawing at the sides of his RV as they tried to grab a hold of him.

"We should stop, Edward," I said, looking back at the RV that was disappearing in the distance.

"No," he said.

"He might know whether there are any sanctuaries in the area," I said, looking at Edward seriously.

Edward was the first person I'd encountered since the apocalypse. I'd begun to think that maybe we were the last ones alive. So, seeing another human being filled me with hope.

_Why wouldn't Edward want to meet other survivors?_

Edward clenched his jaw and shook his head.

"Why?" I asked. "Why don't you want to stop, Edward?"

"We can't trust him. Only assholes survive, Bella… Please believe me," he said.

I quirked an eyebrow at that, which brought a small smirk to his lips.

"Well, _I'm_ not an asshole…" I said with an answering smile.

I looked back one more time at the RV that was only a speck in the distance before heaving a sigh. I wanted to meet other survivor's but I needed to trust Edward. He'd proved to me that he had my best interest at heart.

With that our discussion about the survivor was dropped.

We drove another half a day before things started to go wrong.

It was around dusk when Edward interrupted the doze I'd been in.

"What's that?" Edward said, sitting up in his seat more.

I looked in his direction, but he wasn't staring ahead of us.

Following his gaze, I saw that through a break in the woods flames were flickering in the distance.

"Fuck, it's a fire," Edward said with a tense sigh.

He slowed our vehicle to a crawl as we came around a bend in the road.

Immediately, we saw an overturned truck, lying jackknifed across the road along with three or more cars, engulfed in flames.

"That's just fantastic," I said with a deep sigh.

It was obvious that we wouldn't be able to move the wreck. We were going to have to backtrack.

"This just happened," Edward said, breaking the tense silence.

"What?" I asked. "What just happened?"

"The fire. This fire hasn't been burning for that long."

I looked more closely and saw how the pavement was blackened and scarred, but the smell of diesel and melted rubber was still thick in the air.

"We need to turn back, Edward…" I explained.

"No, we can't. We need to keep going," he said. "Last exit was a long way back. I'm thinking that maybe we should…"

The slapping noise came out of nowhere, cutting Edward off.

"SHIT!" I gasped, jerking away from my window as a corpse appeared next to it.

"Roll down the window, Edward. I'm going to kill it," I said, pulling my ice pick out of my tool belt."

Edward looked at me intensely with his hand on the automatic window button.

"Okay… are you ready?" he asked.

I unhooked my seatbelt and turned towards the window, holding my weapon as I prepared to stab.

"Ready," I said, one hand braced on the back of my seat.

With a whirring sound, the window came down and I lunged forward jamming my pick into its eye, the only place where my strength would allow me to kill it.

The thing went limp and slid down the outside of the passenger door, with a bang as its head hit the door.

The echo could be heard a mile away, piercing the silence.

Both of us froze at the sound, frantically scanning the flickering darkness for movement and we weren't disappointed. Out of the flickering dark, shadows began to writhe and clamber to their feet.

A lot of them.

"Back up! Back up!" I shouted, slapping the dashboard as I spun around in my seat to look out the rear-view mirror.

"I don't know how! I haven't learned yet!" Edward gasped, looking around frantically for an escape from the horde that were staggering towards us.

"Shit, shit, shit…" he muttered, turning half around in his seat as he slammed the car into reverse.

Edward tried to steer us back out of the obstacle course of vehicles, but everything was backwards which caused him to turn left when he should have turned right. This made us bump from vehicle to vehicle until with a screeching bang, the car ground to a halt as it wedged itself against another vehicle.

"Well… fuck…" Edward said, calmly.

"What do we do, Edward?" I moaned, scanning the area. "There's no shelter!"

Edward looked around us, scanning the darkened forest.

"Do you see that outcropping of trees?" he said, pointing me in the direction of a group of fir trees.

"Yeah… Yes…" I said, my anxiety clear in my voice.

"Okay," Edward said. "You run for the trees and I'll hold them off."

"What do you mean?" I said, looking at him incredulously.

He reached for his crossbow. "I'll get rid of a few of them while you make it to the trees and then I'll follow you."

"Wait!" I said in a high-pitched voice. "We have to stick together."

"It'll be okay, Bella. I'll be right behind you," he said, reassuringly.

"We agreed to stick together. No matter what," I pleaded, but he ignored me.

"Ready?" he asked and then threw open the door.

I did the same and together we dashed to the edge of the road.

"Get going, Bella," Edward said, his tone abruptly changing as the dead got closer, becoming low and even. "Now."

"No… Edward. I can help you," I stated. "I'm not weak. I've killed plenty-"

"BELLA! GO!" he snarled at me.

With a whimper, I ran down into the ditch and prepared to cut into the trees.

But I just couldn't do it. I turned back towards Edward and the dead.

For a while, Edward was winning. The dead fell to his slashing blade as he yelled his fury at them.

But I saw that others were approaching. Soon he would be overtaken.

So, ignoring Edward's order, I hauled out my bowie knife and ice pick and slipped out of the woods and up behind the corpses.

The dead were so focused on Edward's growling and slashing form that I was able to creep up behind them.

Of the ten that encircled Edward, I took down three before they noticed that I was there.

At first, Edward didn't notice me, but when the third fell to the ground his eyes locked on to mine.

His eyes widened in alarm and his blade faltered for a moment.

"NO!" I yelled as Edward's hesitation allowed one of the dead to get a hold of him.

Suddenly, Edward disappeared underneath the swarming bodies of the dead.

"No, no, no, no, no…" I moaned, fighting to get to him, but I wasn't strong enough.

In desperation, I thought about the only thing that could distract the dead from Edward.

I grabbed my knife and slashed the back of my forearm, holding it up in the air as the blood dripped down it.

Almost as one, the corpses' heads snapped up and zeroed in on my bloody arm.

I stumbled backwards and shouted.

"COME ON! DON'T YOU WANT SOME OF THIS?!" I shouted. "YUMMY TASTY BLOOD! FRESH AND WARM!"

The dead climbed to their feet and started to converge on me as I walked away from them.

I desperately looked for Edward as I walked quickly backwards, my heart thumping hard in my chest when I couldn't see him.

More dead appeared out of the darkness, searching for the blood that they smelled.

Without Edward, I was dead. There were too many of them.

I let out a shriek when I felt arms grasp me from behind.

"Jesus, Bella! Don't fight me!" Edward hissed.

I heaved a sigh of relief and allowed him to propel me towards the woods as he slashed at the arms reaching for me.

Together we ran into the trees with a string of dead following us.

* * *

**So what do you think? What should they do now? They seem to be in a pretty difficult spot. Do you think Bella could have done something different to save Edward?**


	12. Distraction and Distrust

**Chapter 12: Distraction and Distrust**

**EDWARD**

As I dragged Bella into the woods with me, I seethed with anger.

_How could she do it? What was she thinking?_

I could hear the dead moaning behind us, following the scent of Bella's blood like a homing beacon.

This just proved to me that depending on another person meant death. _How could she have thought that cutting herself was the right move?_ I told her to run for the trees and she ignored me. It was sheer stupidity. She'd probably killed both of us by trying to save me.

My heart was pounding so hard in my chest that it was painful. If we escaped the dead, she could still die from blood loss, infection, or any number of other things.

I wasn't just angry at her. I was more angry at myself for all of this. I'd gotten us into this situation. _How could I have ever thought that taking Bella into the unknown in a vehicle that I could barely drive was a good idea? _

Now, everything we had, everything we needed to survive was sitting in a crashed car on the highway where any other survivor could get to it.

I'd killed both of us, just as much as Bella had.

I had a hold of Bella's wrist just below the slash mark and I could feel her warm blood dripping on my hand.

I needed to get us somewhere safe so that I could wrap it or else she'd probably would faint from loss of blood.

The longer we ran, the more I felt Bella slowing down, being harder to pull along with me. She was fading fast. However, we were out in the middle of nowhere.

Normally, if I were in the woods any large tree would be a refuge for me, but I knew that I wouldn't be able to hoist Bella into a tree.

Bella tripped and nearly took both of us to the ground.

"Stay with me, Bella," I gasped, as I righted both of us.

"Okay… okay…" she muttered quietly, trying to keep up with me.

Desperation was making me feel light headed. I could hear the moaning of the dead from all around us and I felt like they were closing in.

Finally, I saw a break in the woods ahead. When the woods opened up in front of us, I was surprised to find that we'd come upon a river, probably the same one that I'd been following so many months ago.

I scanned the area and saw what looked like a small, crudely built shack.

Seeing a possible safe haven, I pushed hard for us to get there faster. With a final burst of speed, I practically dragged Bella with me until we reached the shack.

It was small, but looked sturdy. However, it wouldn't have mattered if it was falling over because at this point it was our only refuge.

Throwing my shoulder against the door, I shoved my way into the darkened shelter, pushing Bella in ahead of me.

Bella stumbled in the dark and I heard her fall to the ground as I spun around and slammed the door.

As soon as my eyes adjusted to the darkened room, I looked for anything to block the doorway.

It was a pretty basic cabin with minimum furniture, but there was a couch across the room that could work as a barricade.

Risking the dead breaking through the un-barricaded door, I quickly dashed to the couch.

Using my adrenaline-fuelled strength, I dragged the couch to the door.

Shoving with all of my might, I was able to push the couch up against the door which was now being beaten on by any number of dead.

With panting breaths, I scanned the one room shack for other places that the dead could break in.

There was one window on the opposite side of the room, but it wasn't all that big. The person who had built this cabin hadn't built it for a summer home. It was probably nothing more than a fishing or drinking shack; it kept the rain out, but little else.

I grabbed anything I could find, boxes of liquor bottles, a milk crate filled with newspapers, the cushions off the couch. Using these things, I stacked them over the window. It wouldn't stop a horde, but it could slow down one or two of them.

Finally, there was nothing left to do to protect us, besides pray that the dead would lose interest before they were able to break in.

By then, my eyes had adjusted completely to the gloom and I rushed to Bella's side.

With her head tilted back, she was sitting on the floor against the wall with her eyes shut. While I'd been busy barricading the window and door, Bella had ripped off the sleeve of her father's police shirt and wrapped her arm in it and was now holding it against her chest. Blood was already beginning to soak through the wrap even though she had her arm elevated.

"Bella, are you okay?" I asked, in a hushed voice. The anger that I'd felt toward her had dissipated as worry replaced it.

Her eyes opened, but the look in them wasn't a good sign. Her eyes were feverish with pain.

"I'm going to bleed to death…" she said, just as quietly. "I'm sorry."

"What? Don't say that!" I growled, but then quieted my voice in order to not attract the dead. "You're not going to die."

She smiled at me faintly, closing her eyes.

"Okay, I won't say it," she said with a chuckle.

"Fuck off, Bella. Don't laugh at me. Give me your arm," I hissed, pulling her arm to me too hard which caused her to flinch.

I immediately eased up on my grip and gently un-wrapped it.

I sucked in a hissing breath when I saw that it was still bleeding heavily. It was a clean cut, slicing a straight line down the back of her forearm, but it was long, too long to just heal itself. I was sure now that it needed stitches.

"It's okay, Edward. This is my fault not yours. I was the one who cut myself. You shouldn't feel guilty," Bella said, kindly.

"Bella, stop talking ridiculous crap. You're not going to die, so quit trying to make me feel better."

She smiled faintly at me.

"The cut needs to be stitched up and sterilized but all of our stuff is in the car," she said, matter-of-factly, like she was reading out of a textbook.

Her tone pissed me off.

Taking off my belt, I tied it tightly above the wound on Bella's arm. I'd seen it done in movies and assumed that it was probably a real first aid move to stop bleeding. Not everything on TV rotted the brain.

Then, I used the torn piece of shirt to cover the wound and tie it.

"Edward, you should get out of here. My blood dripped all over the ground out there. It's going to attract the dead from miles around. I'm going to die anyway, so let me be your distraction," Bella said.

I just wanted her to shut up as my mind frantically tried to think of a way to get us both out of this. I needed the first aid kit, that was a certainty, but how was I going to get there? And when I did, how could I guarantee that Bella would be safe while I was away?

"Edward…" Bella began, interrupting my thoughts.

"Shut up, Bella. Let me think." I snapped.

"I'm going to have to go back to the car…" I said quietly to myself, but Bella heard me.

"No. You'll die, Edward," she gasped, sitting up quickly which caused her to flinch.

"I've fought a herd before, Bella. Don't you remember? I took down dozens on the first day you saw me," I said.

Her brow furrowed at that and a frown of frustration spread across her face.

"That was different, Edward, and you know it. The dead were focused on the stereo playing music, so you were able to come up behind them. You don't have a stereo now, unless you're hiding one in your back pocket," she said, sarcastically.

_A distraction… I needed something to distract the dead from Bella and from me while I made my way to the vehicle._

I felt more than heard the dead thumping against the wall of the cabin as they tried to get to the source of the blood.

_Blood… _

"Bella, I need your bandage," I said.

Leaving the belt on her arm, I removed the sleeve of her shirt that she'd been using as a bandage. It was soaked with her blood and was warm to the touch as the blood was still fresh.

Ripping off the sleeve of my own shirt, I wrapped it around Bella's arm and tied it securely.

Then, picking up the blood soaked bandage, I stood up.

"I'm going to lead the dead away from the cabin and then I'm going to double back to the car and get the first aid kit," I said in a tone that meant that it wasn't open for negotiation.

"No, you're not," Bella said, glaring at me.

I heard a louder thump outside.

"Bella, don't be an idiot. I'm going. You know it's the only way. They're going to get in here sooner or later and then we'll both die," I tried to say reasonably although the idiot comment was probably going to work against me.

"So, you're just going to waltz out there and run like hell? You need a better plan than that, Edward," Bella said in her condescending tone that she'd sometimes get.

"I do have a plan Miss Know-It-All. I'm going to leave by the window and follow the river, marking as many trees as I can with the blood on this bandage. I'll lead the dead a good distance away before doubling back through the water which will mask my scent. Then, I'll slip in behind the dead and backtrack to the road where we left the car," I explained.

When I said it out loud, it didn't sound as suicidal as I'd thought. It sounded almost like it might work.

Bella didn't respond to my plan. She just stared at me with an unreadable expression on her face.

"What?" I asked. "Say something."

Bella opened her mouth to speak, but then stopped before continuing in a small voice.

"Please, don't go," she said.

I looked at her in surprise, not expecting it. I thought that she'd argue with me, not show fear.

"Bella, we don't have a choice. I have to go, but I promise that I'll come back as soon as I can and then we can treat your arm," I said, walking over to her and crouching down next to her.

"You can't die, Edward. I can't-" she began, but then stopped with a slight tremble to her voice.

That tremble in her voice tugged at something in me.

"Bella, I lived on the road for months on my own and survived. I'll be all right. I'm not really the idiot that I sometimes seem to be," I said with a smirk, wanting to soothe her.

She didn't respond to my joke. She just kept looking at me with a pained look in her eyes.

Reaching out, I put my hand on the shoulder of her uninjured arm and squeezed. I realized in that moment that I felt anxious about leaving her too. She could bleed to death before I got back.

"I'll be back. Keep your arm elevated and don't move around too much," I said, gently.

I couldn't wait any longer. Bella's life depended on how fast I was.

However, before I was able to climb to my feet, Bella grabbed the front of my shirt and yanked me towards her.

The force with which she pulled me rocked me forward on my heels, knocking me off balance.

Falling forward, I landed on my knees with my face only an inch from hers.

I didn't know what was happening. One minute I was looking into Bella's eyes, startled by being so close to her and the next she kissed me, right on the lips. Her mouth was hard on mine, unyielding and our noses smashed together painfully.

But then just as fast as it had started, it was over and I was frozen, looking at her in shock.

With a smirk, she spoke.

"I couldn't die without having a first kiss even if it was terrible," she said with only a slight tremble to her voice. "If you're going to go, you better get going. The monsters are getting louder out there."

It was my first kiss too. I'd never been much for chasing girls when I was younger and I'd only started becoming interested in any of the girls in my class shortly before the apocalypse. Most of my friends made fun of me because I'd been fifteen and never been kissed, but I hadn't cared about any of it.

And while Bella was right that our kiss had been terrible, it made me look at Bella in a new light.

But I had to go.

Without a word, I stood up and walked over to the window that I'd barricaded with boxes and pillows and began gingerly lifting them away a little at a time.

When the window was finally uncovered, I slowly leaned forward so I could look out.

With a sigh of relief, I saw that none of the dead were pawing at the window to get in. However, I soon realized that it was probably because the scent of Bella's blood was near the door of the cabin, not the window.

Carefully, I raised the window, trying to make as little noise as possible.

It was going to be a tight fit and I couldn't make any noise while doing it.

Looking back at Bella one more time, I tried to smile.

"I'll be back soon," I mouthed and she nodded stoically.

Sliding out the window, scraping my stomach and back the whole way, I realized too late that the back of the cabin was on the edge of a hill.

There was one terrifying moment when I felt my feet begin to slip as I let go of the window edge and had to windmill my arms to steady myself.

Once I was on sure footing, I froze and barely breathed as I waited for signs that the dead had heard me.

Carefully, I crept along the wall to the edge of the shack that faced the clearing and saw that there were eight or nine dead thumping against the walls and door.

I needed to be fast while the blood was still fresh on the bandage I was holding.

Creeping a few feet away, I quietly rubbed the bloody cloth against a tree and then did the same a few more trees farther away.

When I felt like I was far enough away and had marked enough trees to keep the dead interested, I took a deep breath.

"HEY! HEY! OVER HERE!" I shouted.

Nothing happened for a few moments and I thought about getting closer. But then, I heard moaning becoming louder.

Through the trunks of the trees, I saw one, no three dead, lumbering in my direction.

_Not enough…_

"COME ON! FRESH BLOOD OVER HERE!" I shouted louder as I tried to get the attention of more of the dead.

Some of the dead were getting uncomfortably close as I waited for more of the dead to appear through the trees.

_Four… five… six…_

They were close enough now that I could smell their odor of decay on the wind and see the various injuries that had killed them. Severed limbs, decaying faces, the empty hungry eyes searched for me.

_Seven… eight…_

I couldn't wait any longer, one of the dead was faster than the others and was practically within reaching distance. He appeared to be a business man and was surprisingly put together for being dead. His suit was covered with minimal gore and besides a slightly crooked tie he looked like he'd just left the office. That was until you looked at his face. Half of it was gone, a twisted mangle of raw meat while the other side was a distinguished looking middle aged man. The normal side of his face was actually the creepiest part because it looked so normal.

_Nine…_

With one deep breath, I turned and began to run towards the river. I had a better chance of escaping out of the trees where I wouldn't get caught up on branches and roots.

When I reached the water's edge, I took a moment to twist the bandage, bringing more blood to the surface.

Smearing it on an old oak, I moved to the next tree and the next.

I heard the dead following me, but they needed to be closer.

"COME ON! I'M OVER HERE!" I shouted and waited long enough to see the businessman and six others stumble out of the woods.

Their heads were tilted up to the sky, like dogs smelling the air for the scent of their prey.

They were able to move more quickly out in the open, but so could I.

Running further down the beach, I spun around to see how many were following me.

It looked like all nine of them had made their way to the beach and were now staggering after me.

I smiled in relief that my plan was working. However, it was then that something happened that I hadn't considered.

Two more dead stumbled out of the woods only a short distance away from me and I heard some coming from other directions too.

"Shit… I'm dead…" I muttered.

I considered my options.

We were still too close to the cabin for me to double back, but I couldn't attract more dead that would be able to block my path.

Stepping into the water, I backed up until it reached my thighs.

I was a strong swimmer, but I needed for them to continue following me for just a little while longer.

As I stood in the water, three or four more dead stumbled out of the woods their heads wobbling on their necks as they searched in all directions for me.

Business guy stumbled towards me, taking a few steps into the water before the current caused him to stumble but not fall.

He looked at me with his half face, seeming to almost scrutinize me. Then, he took a few more steps forward and this time he didn't stumble.

Now, there were twenty to thirty of them lining the river's edge arms outstretched as if they could reach me if they just tried hard enough.

And more dead were arriving every minute as the movement and sounds of others attracted them.

I stepped further back into the water, now up to my chest. The current was stronger here, threatening to pull me off my feet.

_Should I swim further upstream?_

Suddenly, I felt a sharp yank on my pant leg which pulled my legs out from underneath of me, submerging me completely in the water.

I kicked at whatever had a hold of me and opened my eyes in order to see what it was.

In the murky water, I saw that it was an elderly dead woman who had been caught on a piece of a submurged tree.

She was horrifying, a bloated corpse, swelled by being trapped under the water.

One of her hands had a hold of my leg and the other one was reaching for me as the current carried me towards her gaping mouth.

A scream tried to escape me, but instead I choked down a lung full of water. I was in a panic now. My lungs were on fire and I couldn't seem to dislodge the woman.

I kicked and fought, but it was no use.

Then, I felt someone grab my arm and yank me towards the surface.

The immediate relief of breaking the hold of the dead woman was short lived as I breached the surface and found business man staring down at me, hungrily.

With a loud moan that reverberated deep in his chest, the businessman yanked me up out of the water and practically had me within biting distance.

Fighting seemed useless because my legs were floating out behind me in the current.

However, just before the business man had the chance to bite into me, there was a loud thunk and the dead man's hold on me was gone.

Fighting for sure footing, I coughed and hacked brackish water out of my lungs all the while looking for other dead.

It took a few panic filled moments before I realized that someone had rescued me.

Looking towards the beach, I saw just at the edge of the trees the large shape of a man and a smaller woman shooting down corpse after corpse with a crossbow and a gun.

I watched in fascination as the dead fell one after the other until the herd had been thinned out enough that I could approach the shore.

As I reached the water's edge, I joined the couple in killing the dead with my crossbow that had thankfully remained securely strapped to my back in the water.

When it was over, I stared in shock at bodies of the herd floating quickly down the river as welell as the others crumpled lifelessly on the shore.

Stepping out of the water, I hesitantly took a step towards the couple who had rescued me.

I couldn't run away yet because my lungs were burning and it was still hard to breathe.

As I approached, the man stepped forward first and I was shocked that I recognized him.

"Hey kid. Fancy meeting you here," he said in a strangely cheerful voice.

He was even bigger close up than what I'd thought when Bella and I'd seen him sitting on top of the RV a few days ago.

I didn't respond, staring at him suspiciously.

My silence didn't seem to bother him as he stepped closer, reaching out his hand.

"My name's Emmett and the beautiful lady behind me is Rosalie. We heard you calling and thought that maybe we'd find a group of survivors. Imagine our surprise when we found a kid facing down a herd of zombies," he said with a laugh. "What was your end game, kid? Were you planning on going out in a blaze of glory or are you just crazy?"

I hated him instantly. His dancing eyes and dimpled smile were just the things that made people let down their guard enough that they could be killed in their sleep.

"You could at least say thank you," the blonde woman Rosalie said as she stepped forward.

I just glared at her and didn't respond.

"Rose, it's okay," Emmett responded, dropping his hand. "Where you headin' kid?"

"Why?" I asked, threateningly.

"Just curious," he said, with another friendly smile.

"Don't follow me," I said, beginning to back away. "I'll kill you if you follow me."

The big guy looked surprised by my threat while the girl just looked furious.

"That's the thanks we get?" the girl snarled.

"Rose…" Emmett said before turning towards me as I backed away from them.

"Kid, wait… are you with a group? I remember you were with a girl…" he said and I saw a look of hope in his eyes.

But the mention of Bella made my suspicion increase exponentially.

"Oh… hey… I'm sorry about bringing her up… I was just thinking that maybe you and her were part of a group that might be looking for new members" he stuttered, realizing that he'd touched a nerve with me by mentioning Bella.

Then, his mouth snapped shut and a look of pain crossed his face.

"Hey, man. I'm sorry… did you lose her? Did the zombies get your girl?" he asked, sadly.

I continued to back away.

"We can contribute to your group," he said as I turned away from him and hurried off into the woods.

"Just give us a chance," I heard him call as I made my way back in the direction where the highway was.

I didn't take a direct route towards the road in case the two of them tried to follow me, but I couldn't go too far off course. I'd already been away from Bella too long.

"About three miles to go…" I told myself.

It was late afternoon which meant that I had to move quickly if I planned on getting back to Bella before dark. I tried to push the thoughts that I'd been gone too long already from my thoughts, but they kept worming their way back in.

_Was she already dead? Would I get back to the cabin only to find her dead with her blood poured out on the floor?_

I continued to look behind me, praying that the couple wasn't following me. I didn't have time to take another detour to keep them off my trail.

As I got closer to the highway, I was relieved to catch a whiff of burnt oil in the air. It meant that I wasn't too far away from the wreck that had caused Bella and me to have to abandon our car.

I was brought up short when I heard the snapping of bushes ahead of me.

Raising my crossbow, I focused on the approaching noise.

Between the trees, I saw one or two dead stumbling along bumping into trees in their mindless way.

I sighed in relief at the fact that it wasn't the couple. I didn't want to have to kill anyone, but I wasn't going to risk them following me.

Without missing a shot, I quickly dispatched the first two dead that I came across. Then, I dropped down and took out another one with my knife.

With a disgusting squelch, I yanked my knife out of the body and continued moving towards the break in the trees that was only a short distance away now.

When I finally reached the road, I was relieved to see that I wasn't that far from our car, only a few hundred yards.

Crossing the distance, I quietly slipped onto the highway, moving between cars until I was within arms reach of our vehicle.

Taking a deep breath, I prayed one more time that no one had pillaged the vehicle of our supplies.

There were a few dead meandering on the road, but not enough to be a real danger so I carefully opened the trunk of our car with the keys that I had in my pocket.

With a sigh of relief, I saw that our supplies were still neatly stacked under the dark blue blanket that we'd used to conceal them.

I quickly pulled my backpack off and started filling it with supplies, first one being the first aid kit. We needed survival rations that would keep us for a few days until Bella healed enough to travel, so I grabbed water and some of the packets Bella had made.

She was so smart. It was like she'd anticipated the fact that we might have to abandon our supplies at some point, so she'd made up what she'd called "boxed lunches" that had a little bit of everything in them.

My stomach growled at the sight. I'd gone all day without eating which meant that right now Bella was bleeding to death with no food or water to replace the energy that she was losing.

Shoving a few more in my backpack, I covered up our food and prayed that we'd be able to return to get the rest.

Making my way back to the side of the road, I oriented myself towards the direction of the cabin and started the journey back.


	13. More Than Just Surviving

**A:N/ To make up for my missing a week, I have another chapter for you all. Let me know what you think. I love hearing from my readers!**

**Chapter 13: More Than Just Surviving**

**EDWARD**

My hands were on fire from catching myself on twigs and rocks. I could feel the blood trickling down my left shin from the amount of times I'd slipped and scraped it or had some twig stab me.

It was because I was trying to move too quickly. I was usually more sure-footed, but I felt the urgency of getting to Bella.

As I ran, I suddenly heard crunching through the undergrowth, so I froze. I had to take the time to get rid of whatever corpse was chasing me. I couldn't lead any dead back to the cabin.

I heaved a sigh of relief when I realized it was just one, but as it approached I realized that the corpse was huge, not overweight huge, muscled huge.

It lumbered towards me with the forward momentum of a dump truck, hitting trees and bushes which didn't even slow him down.

He didn't look even human any more. His skin looked almost like it had melted from the way it hung off his body. Paired with his size, I was hit with the strange thought that the Hulk was bearing down on me.

Whipping my crossbow off my shoulder, I trained my scope on him and pulled the trigger.

To my dismay, it struck him in the shoulder which didn't even slow him down.

Before I knew it, the giant slammed into me, throwing me backwards and up against a tree.

"Oomph," I gasped as the air was crushed out of me.

With a snarl, he grabbed me by the shirt collar before I could catch my breath and tried to yank me up off my feet, but the force of his grip tore at my shirt, giving me a bit of wiggle room.

I let my legs sag, dropping to the ground. This caused the creature's grip on me to loosen as the cloth tore away in his hands.

"Well, there goes my only shirt," I grunted as I wormed my way out from underneath of him.

Spinning around him, I leaped on his back and tried to shove my knife into the base of his skull. However, again, he was strong enough to throw me off of him, minus my knife which was buried in the back of his neck.

Thankfully, while the creature's size worked against me, he wasn't fast. Therefore, I was able to get to my feet before he was on me again.

All I needed to do was to push my knife deeper into the back of his head. It was lodged deeply in his neck, but I guessed that it just wasn't in far enough.

Grabbing a rock, I spun around the corpse and jumped on his back again.

I held onto his shirt one handed and with the rock tried to pound the knife further into his neck.

"Why won't you die!" I growled, hitting the knife again and again.

It took me three tries, but finally the corpse went limp. However, to my chagrin, we fell backwards. It was so fast that I wasn't able to get out of the way in time and I was thrown to the ground with the corpse on top of me.

"Shit," I gasped as I felt his heavy weight slam down on my chest.

The force was so hard that it left me stunned for a few moments.

Then, reality came back to me and I began to shove at the giant to get him off of me.

"Get off… Get OFF!" I snarled and shoved him with all of my might.

The rush of air into my lungs was almost painful as the corpse rolled to the side of me.

I scrambled to my feet; the urgency to get to Bella was overwhelming.

Grabbing my backpack and crossbow, I started to run.

"Keep going," I muttered. "Gotta keep going."

The pain in my ribs just spurred me to run faster.

* * *

I arrived at the cabin when the sun started its journey towards dusk.

As I approached the cabin, I froze in fear because I heard what sounded like moaning coming from inside the cabin.

Rushing to the window, I looked into the cabin.

"Edward… Edward…"

Bella was slumped to the floor, her hair plastered to her forehead as her head lolled back and forth as she moaned and whimpered my name.

For a moment, I was relieved that she was alone, but then my heart stuttered in my chest. She didn't look well at all.

"He'll be right back," I heard her mutter as she jerked herself awake. "He's strong… can beat the crap out of any monster…"

I almost laughed, forgetting that she was delirious.

The distraction caused my feet to slip on the loose gravel, which caused a rustle in the grass and bushes as rocks tumbled down the hill.

When I finally righted myself, I looked back in the window only to come face to face with the muzzle of Bella's gun trained on me.

"HOLY SHIT, BELLA! PUT THE GUN DOWN!" I said way too loudly as I ducked out of range.

I was shocked when I heard Bella giggle.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," she laughed

"Can I look up now?" I said in a quieter voice.

"Sure, come on in…" she said, far too cheerfully.

Sliding the window open, I climbed in.

As I approached Bella, I was horrified to see how terrible she looked.

Her face was red and shiny with sweat and her eyes were bloodshot.

I walked over to her cautiously, noticing that the gun was still in her hand.

"Bella, put the gun down," I said, carefully.

"Oops," she said, letting go of the gun with a clatter, causing me to flinch.

Once the gun was out of her hand, I hurried over to her and dropped to my knees.

"Bella, I brought supplies," I said.

Opening my backpack, I pulled out a bottle of water and Advil.

I opened the pill bottle and tapped two into my palm and handed her the bottle of water.

"Take this," I said. "It should bring down the fever."

"Well, that would be just dandy," she said, popping them into her mouth and guzzling some water.

With a deep breath, I uncovered her arm and looked at the cut.

It wasn't bleeding as heavily, but it was still oozing slowly and looked red around the edges.

I knew it was going to need stitches if she was going to survive. However, the thought of sticking a needle in her flesh like it was nothing more than a piece of cloth made my stomach turn.

"I've never stitched anyone before," I said, looking at her wound.

"Really? I thought every teenager boy has done a little sewing," she said, with a chuckle.

I looked up at her and glared.

"Don't worry," she said, patting my arm with a shockingly hot hand. "I don't need it to be pretty."

She grabbed the first aid box and opened it on her lap.

Together we pawed through the contents until I found a small plastic package that contained what looked like thread and another that contained a needle.

Holding the two packages in my hand, I tried to center myself so that I could figure out what to do next.

I tried to remember what I learned in my first aid class, but all I could remember was how to do CPR which while being important wouldn't help me now.

_Okay… Think Edward..._

I needed to clean the cut. It was clear that it was becoming infected. The red edges to the wound meant that infection was setting in.

Whenever I cut myself, which was often, I first washed it off to get out any dirt. Then, my mom would douse it with peroxide, which would hurt like a son of a bitch.

Looking at the long cut on Bella's arm, I shuddered.

Grabbing another bottle of water, I poured some of it over my hands to clean them and then I looked in Bella's eyes and then down to the wound.

"I'm going to have to rinse it out, Bella and it's going to hurt like hell..."

"Don't worry about me, sir. I'm an accident prone individual. I've had my fair share of injuries," she said with a smile.

She was acting like she was drunk, which under any other circumstances might have been funny but now it just stressed me out more.

Instead of responding, I held Bella's arm in my hand and before I could think too much about it began to pour the water.

When water streamed over the wound, Bella turned white and gritted her teeth.

I internally steeled myself because if she was already in pain, we were in trouble.

It wasn't enough to just clean it with water. I needed to use peroxide too.

"Jesus…" I muttered, picking up the bottle.

The light in the room was getting fainter as dusk approached. Soon, I would be working by flashlight, so I had to get started quickly in order to use the light I had left.

With a deep breath, I tipped the open bottle over the wound. When it hit the cut, Bella's whole body tensed. I knew what it felt like to put peroxide on a small cut, so I could only imagine the pain she was in right now.

Giving it a moment to bubble as it cleaned out the infection, I rinsed my own hands in peroxide.

I felt the sting of it as it worked its way into the tiny scratches on my hands, making Bella's pain even more real to me.

Reaching for the needle and suture thread, I ripped open the package and then just looked at it.

"What's wrong?" she gasped through the pain.

"Don't I need a knot at the end of the thread? How else will it stay shut?" I asked, feeling even more uncertain.

Maybe it was like sewing on a button. My mother had always refused to do it for me because she said everyone should know how to sew a button. I had no idea why.

I looked at Bella and saw that she was as uncertain as I was.

I couldn't wait. The longer I waited the more chance Bella's cut had to become dirty again.

I took the thread in between my fingers and pushed one end through the hole in the needle and tried measure how much thread I would need. I tied a knot and then another at the end, pulling the two sides of the thread together.

"It'll have to do…" I said, with an indrawn breath that shook.

"Wow, you're filling me with confidence," Bella said, closing her eyes.

With her words, I knew that I couldn't show how scared I was. I needed to be strong and confident for her.

Grabbing the peroxide, I poured it over the needle and thread, hoping that this was what I was supposed to do.

Then, I took another deep breath and looked at Bella.

"Okay, Bella. I can do this, but once I start I'm not going to stop. No matter how you react, I'm going to keep going because we have to. We need to be strong," I said, forcing the quiver to stay out of my voice.

She nodded at me, unable to speak.

Grabbing her arm, I prepared to push the needle into her skin.

"Wait," she gasped, which caused me to whimper.

Bella grabbed the bandana that she'd been using to keep her hair back and put it in her mouth so that she could bite down on it.

With a nod from Bella, I clenched my jaw and pushed the needle into her skin.

The first stitch was harder than I'd thought it would be because skin was a lot tougher than it looked.

Bella's whole body shuddered, but I didn't look up. I knew that if I saw the look of agony in her eyes then I would lose my confidence and wouldn't be able to continue.

Picking another place about a ¼ inch away, I pushed the needle back in.

By the third stitch, Bella was crying and I was sweating and panting.

By the fifth stitch, I was begging for her to forgive me, holding her down with my body weight.

By the seventh stitch, she was pleading with me to stop.

"Edward… pl.. plea… please stop. Edward… you're h… hurr… hurting me."

"I'm so sorry, Bella" I whimpered, practically sobbing as the eighth stitch dug into her flesh.

By the ninth and final stitch, Bella had gone limp.

Quickly but carefully, I tied another double knot at the end of the thread.

Taking the bottle of peroxide, I poured more over the wound.

Bella didn't even flinch this time, but I still didn't look at her. I needed to finish.

The bandages were the type that came with anti-bacterial ointment and adhesive already on them, so I quickly attached it to her arm, smoothing it down as lightly as was possible.

I couldn't look at her. I'd killed her. I was sure of it.

Looking at my hands, I saw that they were covered in blood which caused my stomach to lurch.

Jumping up, I dashed over to the other side of the room and was violently sick.

Using a bottle of water from my backpack, I rinsed out my mouth and then my hands before walking back to Bella.

Slumping to the ground next to her limp body, I finally looked at her face.

Her face was slack in unconsciousness and she was pale, too pale.

Reaching out a trembling hand, I pressed my two fingers against the pulse point in her neck.

A shuddering breath burst out of me when I felt a steady beat under my fingertips.

"Oh thank god," I said, leaning back against the wall and shutting my eyes.

It was the last thing I remember from that night.

* * *

I woke some time close to dawn to the sound of whimpering next to me.

In disorientation, I bolted into a sitting position reaching for my knife.

Scanning the room for danger, I clenched my knife tightly.

It took me a moment before I realized where I was and what had happened the night before.

Turning to my left, I saw that Bella was on her side, writhing in her sleep.

As I slid over to her, she let out a whimper and rolled onto her back.

"Bella," I said, gently. "Bella, wake up."

Reaching out, I touched her forehead and recoiled when I felt how hot it was.

"Bella, come on wake up. I need to give you some medicine," I said, gently shaking her shoulder.

"Mom?" Her voice came out so weak.

"No, Bella. It's Edward."

Her eyes open, but they did not look like they were actually seeing me.

Reaching up, she brushed my cheek with her fingertips before her hand dropped to her side and she moaned loudly, turning her head away.

"Mom, it hurts," she whimpered.

"Bella, come on. Wake up," I said, feeling an undercurrent of panic. "I need you to wake up, so that I can help you."

Seeing that it wasn't going to work, I got up and went to the backpack to get the Advil and a bottle of water.

Sitting down next to her, I opened the bottle and poured some of it over her face and hair.

I knew that I was using up our meagre supply of water, but I hoped that it would shock her awake.

As the water poured over her face, Bella choked and her eyes opened wide.

"Wha… What?!" she gasped, trying to sit up, but quickly giving up when she flinched in pain.

"Edward… my arm is on fire," she whimpered.

"I know, babe. I have Advil which should help bring down your fever," I said as soothingly as possible.

Tapping three Advil into my hand, I tipped them into Bella's mouth and then held the bottle of water to her lips, giving her a sip at a time.

Choking on the water, Bella turned her face away, but she had already swallowed the pills.

Pulling off the remains of my shirt, I poured water over a clean part of it.

Gently, I pulled Bella close to me and placed her head in my lap.

"It's okay. Just let the pills do their thing. It'll be okay in the morning," I said as I held the cloth to her forehead.

It took about a half an hour before Bella lapsed into a more relaxed sleep as the Advil kicked in.

With a sigh of relief, I slid down the wall slowly so that I was on my back.

I was exhausted and while I knew I probably should stay awake to keep an eye on her, I couldn't keep my eyes open.

As dawn breached the horizon, I was jostled awake by the feeling of someone nestling themselves against me.

With a sigh, I rolled onto my back and pulled Bella against me.

* * *

"Bella! For the love of God, will you leave me alone?!" I practically shouted.

"You look like a mountain man! Just because it's the apocalypse, it doesn't mean that we get to let ourselves go…" she said in a matter-of-fact tone.

"Screw off!" I growled.

"Come on, Edward…"

"No…"

"I'll be gentle…"

"Bella, I'm not going to let you put a knife to my face. That is not going to happen," I snapped.

"At least let me cut your hair. It's pretty, but not very manly curling around your shoulders, like that," she tried to reason.

Reaching up, I pulled a strand of my hair in front of my face. I'd always kept my hair quite short, so I didn't know that my hair had the tendency to curl.

Looking at her Bowie knife, I considered it.

"Fine. You can cut my hair, but keep that knife away from my face," I growled.

"Okay. Suit yourself. Let your patchy whiskers grow until they reach your knees. Very manly…" she said with a smirk, standing up and going to our supplies for the bottle that I'd filled with river water.

Rubbing my chin, I frowned at her. The hair wasn't that long…

We'd been at the cabin for over a week, while Bella's cut healed. It felt like for the first two days it was touch and go with her fever spiking every time the Advil wore off, but eventually the stretch between fever spikes got longer and longer until it was finally over.

Bella was still weak, but her irritating personality had reappeared too quickly.

She was slowly driving me crazy inside this tiny cabin.

I'd been back to the car once to get more supplies, but the number of dead on the highway was making it more and more dangerous. Plus, I kept seeing signs that other survivors were around. It was probably Emmett and Rosalie which made me nervous. They knew that I was nearby and were probably searching for me in order to rob us.

I didn't tell Bella about them because I knew that she'd want us to join up with them. She didn't understand how ruthless survivors could be.

Every day, the cabin fever and the need to get on the road became stronger. Bella seemed content to stay here, but I knew that it wasn't safe. The place just made me uneasy.

"Come here, Edward," Bella said, interrupting my thoughts. "I want to get your hair wet."

Grudgingly, I got up and walked over to her in the light of the window.

"Bend down and tilt your head forward," she said.

I did as she said, cringing as the cold water splashed over my head and shoulders.

Once I was sufficiently wet, Bella had me sit on a stool and she started to try to finger comb my hair.

"Shit, Edward. Have you not brushed your hair since the apocalypse?" she asked as she tugged painfully on my tangles.

"It hasn't been high on my priorities," I grumbled.

"Whatever, grouchy pants…" she said, tugging on it a little too forcefully.

Overall, the haircut was not a pleasant experience. My scalp felt raw and sore from all the tugging that went on from Bella sawing at it with her knife.

"All done, grouchy…" Bella said with a smile as she looked down at me.

"I did a pretty good job if I do say so myself," she said, running her fingers through my hair.

Her fingers felt nice in my hair after all of the tugging and pulling that it had just gone through. She was gentle now, separating each strand with her fingers.

Involuntarily, I felt my eyes falling shut, almost as if I were in a trance.

"I'm going for a swim," Bella said, jolting me awake. "You should too. You stink."

And once again, Bella was back to irritating me.

"It's not safe, Bella," I said.

"Edward, nothing is safe any more. We'll just have to be careful," she reasoned.

"Bella, there are more-" I began, but she interrupted me.

"Nope… I'm doing it, Edward. The sponge baths are not cutting it any more," she said.

At her words, a flash of heat spread across my face as my eyes involuntarily snapped to her chest.

I'd woken up one night, startled to feel that Bella wasn't next to me.

I'd looked around for her and was startled to see the shape of her standing in front of the window that was illuminated by the full moon.

For a moment, I didn't know what she was doing. However, once my eyes had adjusted to the gloom I was shocked to see that her shirt was draped over the back of the couch and she was clearly topless with her back facing me.

I knew that I should look away. It was wrong of me to continue watching. But all my reasoning couldn't force my head to look away.

I realized that she was using a wet wash cloth to bathe.

All ability for rational thought went out the window with that realization.

"_Turn around… turn around… turn around…" _My perv mind chanted over and over again in my head.

And as if she heard me, she began turning in my direction in what seemed like slow motion.

"_Look… don't look… look… don't look…." _

She was almost fully facing me when she caught me looking at her.

Her shriek could have woken the dead.

As I bolted out of the cabin, I couldn't wipe the flash of naked boobs out of my head.

For days, the sight would just randomly appear in my head. It was probably part of the reason that I was irritated with Bella so much.

After spending months with Bella, I was finding it more and more difficult to keep my thoughts PG. I was, after all, a hormonal teenage boy. I couldn't help it. And it didn't help matters that neither one of us had any privacy.

It also irritated and relieved me that Bella never brought it up. Not even once.

"Earth to Edward," Bella said, snapping her fingers in front of my face.

I swatted at her hand.

"What?" I asked.

"Are you coming? I'm going now," she said, walking towards the door.

"Ummm…" I said, unsure about the whole thing.

She turned back to me and rolled her eyes.

"I'm not doing it naked, Edward. I'll wear my bra and underwear," she said.

That didn't make things any better.

"You've seen girls in bikinis before, haven't you?" she asked, raising one of her eyebrows.

"Well… ummm…" I began, still at a loss for words.

"Whatever," she said, opening the door carefully. "Come if you want."

Quietly, she crept out of the cabin.

I walked to the door and watched her move towards the side of the cabin.

Before she could turn the corner and out of my sight, I slipped out of the building and followed her to the beach.

The danger of running into the dead was still a possibility, but Bella was right. The danger would always be there.

We just had to be aware of our surroundings at all times, which was practically instinct for both of us now anyway.

As we reached the water, I looked both ways down the beach looking for any danger.

When I saw none, I relaxed slightly.

The thought of taking a swim was actually quite appealing. I felt like there was a layer of grime covering me.

Without a backwards glance at me, Bella walked to the water's edge and stuck a toe in the water. With a gasp, she jumped back.

Looking over her shoulder at me, she smiled.

"Well, it's going to be refreshing, I guess," she said.

I smiled in return.

But when she stepped back from the water's edge and started to pull off her clothes, I quickly looked away.

I heard her chuckle under her breath.

"Edward, you don't have to get all weird," she said. "It's not like you didn't already take a peek at me when you were spying on me the other night," she said.

My head snapped back to hers. "I was not-" I began to defend myself, but my words got stuck in my throat when I saw that she was in the water almost up to her hips.

I gulped loudly and looked away again.

"Are you coming in?" she asked.

I froze at her words.

_What was she doing? Was she just teasing me? Did she feel the same things that I did?_

"I'm going to watch… I mean… I'm going to keep watching… watch for the dead… I'm going to keep a look out for the dead…" I stammered, which caused me to turn beet red.

"Suit yourself," she said, diving under the water.

Once she was out of my sight, I was able to calm myself.

I had to get it together. Whatever feelings I had for her were not good. I couldn't let my hormones rule me. They were already rattling me and I couldn't afford to be rattled with the possibility of being attacked around every corner.

With that determination planted firmly in my mind, I continued to scan the beach and the tree line for the dead.

It seemed to take Bella and awfully long time. She'd brought a small bottle of shampoo with her which was probably what was taking her so long. Bella needed a haircut too. Her hair practically hung to the small of her back now.

"Okay," Bella said, coming out of the water. "It's your turn."

I stood up and looked at Bella, making sure to keep my eyes trained on her face and nothing else.

"I'll keep an eye out while you take a bath," she said before I had the chance to ask her to do it.

"Okay," I said. "Where's the shampoo?"

I don't know how long I stayed in the water, but I took my time, using the shampoo to wash my hair and the rest of me.

For a brief while, I let my guard down. I flipped and turned in the water, enjoying the feeling of being clean.

By the time I decided to get out of the water, my hands were wrinkled from being in the water so long.

I looked up at the beach with a smile and saw that Bella had taken the opportunity while I was in the water to wash her clothes as well as mine.

All I had left was my underwear and a pair of raggedy shorts, but Bella felt that it was necessary for the raggedy shorts to get a cleaning too.

As I approached the shore, the smile didn't leave my face. I felt really good, the cold water having invigorated me.

Bella stared at me with a small smile on her face and an unreadable expression in her eyes as I reached her. I didn't understand the look, but I felt too good to dwell on it.

Sitting down on a piece of beach wood, I stared out at the waves with a contented smile.

"Thanks for that. You were right. I needed a bath," I said with a smile.

"You sure did," she said. "But you also need a shave."

I felt so good in that moment that her nagging didn't even irritate me.

"Fine… but if you take my nose off, I'll hate you forever,"

With a small laugh, Bella grabbed our clothes and then my arm and dragged me off to the cabin.


	14. Consumed

**Chapter 14: Consumed**

**BELLA**

The pain that throbbed through my arm was more than I'd ever experienced.

Without Edward, I had nothing to distract myself besides the pain and the worry that he wouldn't come back.

Edward had become very important to me, more than important. I was pretty sure that I loved him.

I couldn't imagine what my life would have been like in this new world without him. If I were being honest with myself, I knew that I wouldn't still be here.

We picked at each other because we were so different but I thought that we'd both grown closer.

But Edward was so frigging frustrating. Even though we were with each other 24 hours a day, he still refused to share anything personal with me. The little bit that I did learn about him, I got from wearing him down.

Ever since he'd given my father mercy, he'd been very protective of me. However, I wasn't even sure that he saw himself as my friend.

When he'd told me that we had to leave Forks, I wasn't entirely convinced even though I saw how many dead there were. But Edward had been determined and I couldn't let him leave without me. So, I helped him pack up the car and then white-knuckled it while he weaved through the streets, trying to figure out how to drive.

When we got stuck, I didn't blame him. He wanted the best for us and he didn't know any other way to get us out of Forks.

I knew that he'd been furious with me for cutting myself. However, in that moment, I saw that I was going to lose him and I just couldn't let that happen. I was going to be his protector for once.

_I'm not so sure it was worth it_, I thought sarcastically as my arm felt like it had quadrupled in size, throbbing with every heartbeat.

Before he'd left, I'd gotten up the courage to kiss him. Yes, it was a pretty terrible first kiss, but I had to do it.

Even if it didn't mean anything to him, I needed it. He'd probably kissed plenty of girls, I thought jealously. He was too good-looking to not have had girls all over him.

When I closed my eyes, I could still see his face barely an inch apart from mine. His emerald green eyes were wide and his breath puffed against my face as he gasped in surprise. I'd never been that close to him when I wasn't practically catatonic. He was the most handsome guy that I'd ever seen. So, before I lost my nerve, I mashed my lips against his.

I chuckled to myself, which caused my arm to throb as I jostled it.

I didn't think that he knew how to handle it, so I told him that he needed to go if he was going.

I was not the most beautiful. The girls in my school always told me that I didn't live up to my name Bella. I was too plain to be Bella.

But if the saying "Not even if you were the last person on earth held true, minus the "not even" part, then, I had a chance with Edward. In the old world, he would have been way out of my league, but now his choices were slim.

"_Hold yourself to a higher standard than that, Bells. You're not ugly. If you really pay attention, he stares at you when he thinks you're not looking. Not that I'm encouraging this kind of thing_,"

Charlie said, gruffly in my head.

A flare of pain wracked through me.

"_I hurt, Dad_," I whimpered.

"_I know, Bells. Just hold on. Edward will come back,"_ Charlie said confidently.

With the sound of Edward's name, my mind drifted back to him.

He was so hot. I loved how his green eyes would brighten when he was angry or excited. His other features weren't too bad either. I loved his long straight nose and crooked smile which was the only thing that marred his model looks. That little flaw only made him more attractive because it made him "attainable."

I loved his power too. I compared Edward's energy to a wood stove. When I would stay at the fishing lodge with Charlie, I liked to sleep next to the wood stove. I always thought that every flicker of flame looked like it was fighting to be released from its confinement. I felt that way often around Edward. There was a fierceness to him that was always just below the surface ready to burst at any moment. Even his hair flickered with flame when his auburn highlights flickered in any kind of light.

He was also hot to the touch. When I was pressed against him at—

"_Whoa, Bells. I don't need the visuals. I don't want to know this stuff_," Charlie interrupted.

"_Daaaaaad_," I whined. "_Get out of my head, then_."

This made him go silent, but with his silence, the pain returned, causing me to cry.

"Edward, where are you?" I moaned.

I knew that I had a fever. I was starting to hallucinate and my hallucinations were terrifying.

During my lucid moments, it was clear that the people visiting me were not real. However, as my fever spiked, they seemed very very real.

My mom came to me first, comforting and gentle, at least until the smell of rot started to seep out of her and her skin paled and turned bloody.

Then, Angela would appear in her rotted form, gossiping about how Jessica had been taken to the hospital and was trying to bite people.

The most horrifying, however, was Edward.

In my fevered nightmare, Edward burst through the cabin door, stumbling as he fell into the room. His beautiful face and body were in tatters from the myriad of bites that riddled his body.

His milky green eyes stared at me accusingly, as he stumbled towards me. Then, his right arm raised and pointed at me.

"I'm so sorry, Edward… It's all my… my fault," I stuttered as a wave of heat flooded me.

Edward nodded in agreement.

I writhed in guilt and despair at his acknowledgement. However, the movement snapped me back to reality as the pain in my arm came back full-force.

"He'll be right back," I muttered. "He's strong… can beat the crap out of any monster…"

Suddenly, I heard a noise coming from outside the window, so I whipped my gun towards it…

* * *

Three weeks had gone by since the "stitching incident." It was the most excruciating experience of my life. Every stab of the needle had been agony. People said child birth was the worst, but having a large gash sewn up without anaesthetic after being doused with peroxide had to be a close second.

However, one good thing that came out of the trauma was that I felt that it brought Edward and me closer together.

There was a tension between us now. However, it was a good kind of tension that made my stomach quiver every time I caught him looking at me with a new intensity.

"_I want him,"_ I thought in my mind.

"_Well, get him then,"_ My mother's voice sounded out in my thoughts for the first time.

"_Now, Rene…"_ my father said, but then fell silent.

I wasn't sure at first whether it was even possible to "get him," especially after the failed first kiss, but then the night came when I caught him spying on me while I bathed.

It scared the shit out of me when I saw his eyes glittering in the dark. However, once I had the time to calm down, it made me excited.

I decided in that moment that I was going to "get him."

He had a lot of control, but I knew that his teenage hormones were working in my favor.

I decided to set myself missions. I was good at missions. I would set myself manageable tasks with deadlines.

1. Touch him five times in two days. They had to be lingering touches.

I accomplished this by insisting on cutting his hair which really could have stayed long. It was beautiful at any length.

2. Give him glimpses of my bare skin- stomach, thigh, back.

I fulfilled this mission by getting him to go swimming with me.

"_Show him what you've got, Bella,"_ my mom encouraged me.

"_Dear lord…"_ Charlie said, but then held his tongue.

The theme song for Mission Impossible played at each stage of my mission which would strangely make me less shy about what I was doing.

My biggest mission that I had no idea how to accomplish was to kiss him again, but this time it couldn't be a mashing of lips. It had to be a real one. It would probably have to be a sneak attack.

As I accomplished each task, I knew that my plan was working.

His eyes were trained on me more often and he squirmed more when I was around. However, he would always bolt at that point.

So, our days passed like that. We squabbled, we flirted, we settled into a strange sense of normalcy.

That was until the day we saw the sign on the road.

After I was completely healed, I started to go with Edward when he went to our vehicle for food and water.

It was a struggle getting to the SUV because there were more dead every day. And I was out of practice in killing.

It took me longer to knock them down and was more of a struggle to finish them off.

"I don't need your help," I grunted as I knelt on an elderly man's back and tried to jab him.

"If you say so," Edward responded with a smirk as he watched me from where he was leaning against our SUV.

"Shut up," I snarled, finally getting the upper hand and severing the dead man's spinal cord.

Edward chuckled and turned to open the back of the SUV.

We still had a lot of food left which made me concerned about how we were going to transport it when we left. I knew we were going to have to leave soon because there were more dead every day in the woods and their increased numbers was making us nervous.

Because of the dead, our normal route back to the cabin was overrun so we had to make a detour.

It was during this detour that we found a sign.

**WE COME IN PEACE, RED-HAIRED GUY.**

**WE CAN CONTRIBUTE TO YOUR GROUP. **

**SAFETY IN NUMBERS.**

**LOOK FOR US WHERE WE SAVED YOUR ASS.**

**E + R**

"Are they talking about you?" I asked Edward in shock.

Edward merely grunted.

"You met other survivors?" I gasped. "Why didn't you tell me?"

I was beyond shocked that he hadn't told me anything about them.

"It slipped my mind," he said, dismissively. "Plus, it doesn't matter."

I stared at him, incredulously.

"What do you mean "it doesn't matter"? There are people nearby! Live people!"

"Other survivors can't be trusted, Bella," he snapped at me.

"How do you know? Do you know them? The sign says that they saved you," I demanded.

"I don't know them," he said, pinching the bridge of his nose in a gesture that I'd come to learn was a sign of frustration. "But survivors are dangerous."

"How do you know?" I repeated.

"I just KNOW, Bella. Will you drop it?"

"No-" I began, but was cut off when a giant overweight corpse, lumbered up next to me.

Not waiting for me to take care of it myself, Edward strode forward and stabbed it through the eye with his bowie knife.

"Let's go," he ordered, stepping off the road and walking carefully down the hill.

"We're not done talking about this," I hissed at him.

I got no response to that.

* * *

When we got back to the cabin, Edward tried to distract me by questioning me about our supper.

"This is pretty gross, Bella. Why the hell do we need to eat this? It's like fish flavored tissue paper."

"Seaweed has iodine in it. Sorry, I don't have any sushi to make a roll with it," I responded curtly.

"Uh huh," he said, popping a few more pieces into his mouth and then offering the package to me.

I glared at him as I took a couple of pieces.

"It's not working, Edward. You can't distract me. We need to talk about what happened back there."

Edward stood up and started pacing the room.

"Aren't we fine just the two of us, Bella? Don't you trust me to take care of you?" he asked, laying on the guilt pretty thick.

I just stared at him, not dignifying that with a response.

"Do you just plan for us to run forever? Eventually, we're going to need to join up with survivors," I tried to reason with him.

"No, we don't," he said, stubbornly.

"I want to meet them," I demanded.

"No."

"Yes."

"No," he said again, looking more and more angry.

"Why not? I need to know, Edward or I'm going to continue asking," I said, firmly.

He stared at me for a moment before his shoulders finally slumped and he sat down on the floor across from me.

"I was with another group before…"

* * *

I was so angry.

How could Jasper just abandon, Edward?

Edward seemed to think that Jasper had done the right thing, but he was wrong.

The minute Jasper got a replacement family, he'd told Edward to get lost. It was clear that he was just afraid that Edward would jeopardize it.

Edward said that it was because he'd become too dangerous. He thought that he wasn't meant to be with a family, but the Edward I knew would never have hurt Alice or her parents.

My heart broke for him when he told me about Garrett. He recited the story so matter-of-factly, but I knew him enough by now to know how much he was hurt by his death.

Edward felt like he had failed Garrett because he'd let his emotions make him weak.

Now that I knew his history, I was amazed that Edward had ever decided to be with me, a vulnerable teenage girl.

Once he was finished talking, we sat together in silence.

I could tell that Edward was lost in his own thoughts, so in order to get his attention I slid towards him so that we were knees to knees.

"Listen to me, Edward. I'm going to tell you this and you're not going to argue with me. Garrett's death was not your fault. It was James'. Jasper was wrong to make you leave. You are not dangerous. You're fierce and protective. I have absolute trust in you."

He began to shake his head, but I grabbed his chin and stopped him.

"I'm going to kiss you now and you're going to take it," I said and before I could lose my nerve, I lunged forward and pressed my lips to his.

He held himself stiffly against me, his lips a hard line under mine. However, I didn't let it faze me. I worked my hands up his neck and wound my fingers in his hair, pulling him more firmly into the kiss.

I whimpered in need, pleading with him to kiss me back.

A shudder wracked through him at the sound and it was as if suddenly he had melted into me.

His lips began moving against mine and he wrapped his arms around me as he crushed me to him.

I flicked the tip of my tongue over his lips and was thrilled when he opened up to me.

A loud moan rumbled in his chest and he attacked my mouth with ferocity.

I guess he liked it.

We were sloppy in our eagerness, but it was still the most amazing experience of my life. I felt like I was being consumed by his flames.

Edward shoved his hands into my hair, anchoring my head in place as he pressed himself against me. His hold on me was so strong that I was pushed back until I was sprawled on the floor.

As his large body pressed into mine, he was unconsciously rubbing up against me.

I fucking loved every minute of it, pulling him even closer to me.

When we found ourselves out of breath, Edward kissed down my neck, sucking and licking as he descended to my collarbone.

One hand left my hair in order to pull down the neck of my shirt so that he could reach the exposed skin.

But it wasn't enough, I reached up and took his hand, moving it down my body until it was pressed against my breast.

For a moment, he gripped it tightly, a whimper escaping him as he moved his lips back to mine.

But then, he jerked away from me and I saw that his eyes were wide with shock and then hardened.

"Ah…" was the only sound that escaped him as he slid away from me.

I reached out for him, panting with desire.

"No," he said, firmly and it was as if he'd slapped me.

My hand dropped to my side and I sat up.

No sooner had the word left his mouth that I saw a look of regret spread across his face.

"Bella, I'm sorr-" he began, but I refused to listen.

"No, I'm sorry. I'm sorry that you're saddled with me. I'm sorry that you see me as a responsibility. I'll try to not be as much of a burden," I said, jumping to my feet and bolting out the door.

I was going to find the other survivors.

However, I'd only run a short distance when I regretted my decision. I couldn't leave Edward like that.

But when I turned around to go back to him, my way was blocked by about a dozen of the dead and I'd forgotten my weapons in the cabin.

**A:N/ Thanks for reading. I hope you liked it. Let me know what you think.**


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